Jean Isabel MelzerOAM (néeMcLeod); 7 February 1926 – 18 June 2013) was an Australian politician and activist. She was a Senator for Victoria from 1974 to 1981, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). A long-time supporter of the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, she left the party in 1984 over its failure to ban uranium mining and stood unsuccessfully for the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the 1984 federal election.
Early life
Melzer was born on 7 February 1926 in Elsternwick, Victoria. She was the daughter of Lilian Rosa (née Ford) and George Kenneth McLeod. Her father, a World War War I veteran, was an accountant and civil servant.[1]
Melzer was educated at Ormond State School, Ormond East State School, and Gardenvale Central School, completing her secondary education at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School from 1939 to 1941. Her father committed suicide in 1940 and she had to leave school early to support her family. She began working as a clerk with the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission and later worked for radio station 3AW and for the Building Workers' Industrial Union.[1]
Politics and activism
Early years
Melzer joined the Communist Party of Australia as a teenager. She was active in the leftist New Theatre as an actor, assistant director, and costume designer. She left the Communist Party in 1957.[1]
She was elected at the 1974 election, becoming the first woman Labor senator from Victoria.[2] In 1978 she was the first woman elected as the Secretary of the Labor Caucus.[2] She served two terms,[3] being defeated at the 1980 election as she was placed third on the Labor ticket.[4] Her final term ended on 30 June 1981.[3]
She stood unsuccessfully as the lead Victorian senate candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party in the 1984 election. She received 7.1% of the vote.[5]
Personal life
Melzer had four children with her first husband, William Griffiths, whom she married in 1946. She was divorced in 1961 and remarried in the same year to Wilton Melzer, with whom she had another two children. Her second marriage also ended in divorce in 1974, the same year she was elected to the Senate.[1]
Melzer was the president of U3A Network Victoria.[6][7] She died on 18 June 2013.[8]
MS 3683 Records of the Women's Electoral Lobby (Australia) Series 7: Political lobbying records, 1972–89 folder 18–19 held at NLA
Paper presented at National Labor Women's Conference, Canberra, 29 January-1 February 1982
Paper presented at 2nd Women and Labour Conference, Melbourne, 17 May 1980 paper called "Is Parliament Relevant to Women and. Their Search for Identity?" [1]
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