Labor is deeply saddened by the passing of the Honourable Susan Ryan AO.
\nWe remember Susan not just for the things she did first. We remember her for the legacy she leaves.
\nShe changed Australia for the better. Before her, Australian women were \u2013 in so many ways \u2013 second-class citizens.
\nShe was responsible for so many of Labor\u2019s greatest modernising reforms, including the Sex Discrimination Act.
\nUntil then, it had been legal to discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status or pregnancy. Women were locked out of education, jobs and opportunity; refused access to home finance and faced the sack for being pregnant.
\nAs unremarkable as this reform might sound today, Susan fought widespread opposition. 26 members of the House of Representatives voted against it.
\nSusan was also instrumental to the Equal Employment Opportunity and the Affirmative Action Act, and drove improvements in perhaps the most powerful equaliser: education.
\nAs Education Minister, she was responsible for seeing more Australians complete school and increasing participation in tertiary education.
\nHer life after politics was also dedicated to bettering rights and equality, serving as the Age Discrimination Commissioner and later the Disability Discrimination Commissioner.
\nSusan was also a strong advocate for superannuation as head of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
\nOutside of her career, she spent time mentoring those within the labour movement who sought her trailblazing advice.
\nWe have much work to do in continuing to advance her legacy, toward a truly equal Australia.
\nThe Australian Labor Party give condolences to all Susan\u2019s family and loved ones.
\nThe entire movement mourns the passing of one of our greatest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Labor is deeply saddened by the passing of the Honourable Susan Ryan AO. We remember Susan not just for the things she did first. We remember her for the legacy she leaves. She changed Australia for the better. Before her, Australian women were \u2013 in so many ways \u2013 second-class citizens. She was responsible for … Continue reading “ANTHONY ALBANESE & PENNY WONG \u2013 STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF THE HON SUSAN RYAN AO”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}