Pauline Toner

Pauline Therese Toner (16 March 1935 – 3 March 1989) was the first female cabinet minister in the Parliament of Victoria. A member of the Australian Labor Party, she was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1977 and was Minister for Community Welfare Services from 1982 to 1985. She resigned from Parliament in 1989 and died on 3 March 1989.^[1]

Biography

Pauline was born in Horsham, Victoria, the third child of William and Madge Hoare. After attending Brigidine Convent Horsham, she trained as a primary school teacher, then attended university, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts (University of Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Education (La Trobe University). In 1962 she married architect Brian Toner (d. 2008) and they had five children: Jane, Madeline, Rachel, Lucy and Denis. Illness forced her resignation from parliament on 28 February 1989, and she died of cancer three days later on 3 March.

Career

Following her early teaching career, Pauline became a lecturer at the State College of Victoria. She joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1968 and was elected to the Diamond Valley Shire Council in 1973, becoming shire president in 1977.

She was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in a by-election in 1977, winning the seat of Greensborough for the ALP, and became the opposition spokeswoman on community services and women's affairs. When the ALP formed government in 1982, Pauline became the Minister for Community Welfare Services, and the first woman to hold a ministerial position in the Victorian Parliament. She held this office until 1985 and continued to serve as a backbencher until her resignation in 1989.

Toner's legacy includes the introduction of adoption laws that made it easier for adoptees to obtain information about their adoption. She also implemented funding for neighbourhood houses, and her work focussed on the rights of children.

In 1986 the Eltham Copper Butterfly (Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida), thought to be extinct, was discovered in the Greensborough electorate. Toner campaigned successfully to acquire land for the protection of this threatened species.

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