Jean Jenkins
Encyclopedia
Jean Alice Jenkins is an Australian educator in languages and served as an Australian Democrats
senator
for Western Australia
from 1987 to 1990. She is also noted as an originator in Western Australia of NAATI-accredited level 2 (paraprofessional) courses in translation and interpreting, and as a campaigner for human rights
and preservation of built heritage
. She has been a patron of the The Art Deco Society of Western Australia since 1989.
, Swansea
, Wales
, by adoptive parents Daniel and Blanche Jones. She was educated at Swansea Girls' Llwyn-y-Bryn High School and graduated in the University of Reading
(B.A. with Honours in Italian, French and German). She taught languages in Italy and England, becoming an oral examiner for the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate. With her first husband, the late Donald Pope, an industrial physicist, she had two daughters and a son and the family emigrated to Australia in 1969. She was appointed as a languages lecturer at the Perth Technical College (a.k.a. TAFE) and was later promoted to the position of Head of Department, English, Languages and Social Studies. In 1979, she married writer and PR
consultant Brian Jenkins with whom she resides in retirement at Safety Bay
.
In early 1985, Jean Jenkins was a senior lecturer at the 1910 Perth Technical College
building in central Perth when the Burke
state government announced through media that the building would be demolished as part of a major site redevelopment. (It later transpired that Premier Burke had made one of the first of his notorious "WA Inc
" business deals with entrepreneur Alan Bond
and financier Laurie Connell
through a quasi-governmental enterprise, the WA Development Corporation (WADC)). Jean and an art lecturer colleague, Sue Paull, immediately convened a protest meeting.
Public dismay resulted in the formation of a formidable campaign team styled 'the Castle Keepers'--a reference to the castellated tower of the collegiate gothic
building. A colourful and very public campaign was waged over some six months, securing the firm support of the Perth City Council. Continuous media exposure hastened the capitulation of premier Brian Burke
and his withdrawal of the demolition proposal at a meeting with the Castle Keepers' leader Jean Jenkins. The building was formally declared saved at a huge public celebration in November, 1985, and was subsequently placed on the Register of the National Estate. The 1910 'Castle' was the first significant Perth public building to be preserved through public protest since the fight for the Barracks Arch in the 1960s. In 1989, the Castle Keepers rallied for a second time under the then Senator Jenkins to defeat another destructive proposal for the building, raised by entrepreneur Warren Anderson
.
in Perth during the 1970s and the Australian Democrats
in 1980. She acted as the party's Western Australian division policy coordinator in education, and in immigration/ethnic affairs for several years, and was elected as divisional ombudsman.
She was probably the first-ever senator to address an astonished chamber in Italian
, during her maiden speech, in reinforcing a point that language unfamiliarity was a serious impediment to migrant schoolchildren. She tendered a quotation in the Welsh language
during her valedictory speech in May 1990.
, Jenkins was immediately thrust into the limelight as a national spokesperson on, inter alia, immigration
and multicultural ethnic affairs, Territory affairs including a fierce battle for use of the Hare-Clark method
for the ACT electoral system, and a range of other controversial legislation on war crime
s, X-rated videos and questionable revenue-raising measures of the then Hawke
Labor
administration.
In 1988 the then leader of the opposition, John Howard
, made remarks that Australia should cut back Asian immigration. He was resolutely attacked by Jean Jenkins in both the parliament and media, as she emphasised the Democrats' commitment to a non-discriminatory
immigration programme. She followed up by introducing 46 amendments
to Labor's Immigration Bill, all of which were defeated by the combined votes of the government and coalition opposition.
She regularly employed the Senate's Adjournment debate
to criticise and publicise extensive human rights
abuses including Aboriginal deaths in custody
and the post-war child-migration
scandals (simultaneously raised in the UK by Margaret Humphreys
). During her three-year term in the Senate, Jean Jenkins delivered over 500 speeches and issued 430 media statements on issues ranging from wildlife and heritage conservation to the impact of high home-mortgage
interest rates, on which she organised a national campaign in 1989. Her final parliamentary initiative was an unsuccessful private senator's bill seeking to establish a national register of foreign ownership
of Australian business and real estate.
vote for any candidate, but was denied essential preferences by the major parties which her frankness had alienated, and she was defeated. For a year she continued to serve as an adviser to the Democrats' leader Janet Powell
who was controversially deposed by a party-room coup on 19 August 1991. In 1993, the Western Australian division was subjected to an abortive politico-financial takeover bid funded by businessmen John Poynton, Harold Clough and others. Eleven elected party officers, Jenkins included, instituted a protective Supreme Court action, a technicality which led to their expulsion in 1994 by the party's national executive. As a result, a majority of Western Australian members left the party.
) and, in 2004, unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of Brand
—which was retained by then Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
who had feared defeat when the Greens declined to preference him. However, her action achieved its tactical objective of increasing the vote for the Greens' Senate candidate Rachel Siewert
, who was elected for a six-year term.
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
senator
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
for Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
from 1987 to 1990. She is also noted as an originator in Western Australia of NAATI-accredited level 2 (paraprofessional) courses in translation and interpreting, and as a campaigner for human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and preservation of built heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
. She has been a patron of the The Art Deco Society of Western Australia since 1989.
Early life and career
Jean Jenkins (née Elliott) was born in Bristol, England, and brought up in the village of MumblesMumbles
Mumbles or The Mumbles is an area and community in Swansea, Wales which takes its name from the adjacent headland stretching into Swansea Bay...
, Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, by adoptive parents Daniel and Blanche Jones. She was educated at Swansea Girls' Llwyn-y-Bryn High School and graduated in the University of Reading
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
(B.A. with Honours in Italian, French and German). She taught languages in Italy and England, becoming an oral examiner for the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
Local Examinations Syndicate. With her first husband, the late Donald Pope, an industrial physicist, she had two daughters and a son and the family emigrated to Australia in 1969. She was appointed as a languages lecturer at the Perth Technical College (a.k.a. TAFE) and was later promoted to the position of Head of Department, English, Languages and Social Studies. In 1979, she married writer and PR
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
consultant Brian Jenkins with whom she resides in retirement at Safety Bay
Safety Bay, Western Australia
Safety Bay is an outer southern suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, located on the coast within the City of Rockingham.-History:...
.
The 'Castle Keepers' campaign
Old Perth Technical School
The 1910 Perth Technical School is located at 137 St Georges Terrace, Perth, Western Australia, adjacent to the Old Perth Boys School building....
building in central Perth when the Burke
Brian Burke
Brian Thomas Burke was Labor premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988...
state government announced through media that the building would be demolished as part of a major site redevelopment. (It later transpired that Premier Burke had made one of the first of his notorious "WA Inc
WA Inc
WA Inc was a political scandal in Western Australia. In the 1980s, the state government, which was led for much of the period by premier Brian Burke, engaged in business dealings with several prominent businessmen, including Alan Bond, Laurie Connell and Warren Anderson...
" business deals with entrepreneur Alan Bond
Alan Bond (businessman)
Alan Bond is an Australian businessman noted for his criminal convictions and high-profile business dealings, including what was at the time the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history. Bond was born in the Hammersmith district of London, England, and emigrated to Australia with his...
and financier Laurie Connell
Laurie Connell
Laurie Connell was a Western Australian business entrepreneur. He was well known for his dealings with the Government of Western Australia and his close relationship with the then Premier of Western Australia, Brian Burke, during the WA Inc period in the mid to late 1980s as chairman of the...
through a quasi-governmental enterprise, the WA Development Corporation (WADC)). Jean and an art lecturer colleague, Sue Paull, immediately convened a protest meeting.
Public dismay resulted in the formation of a formidable campaign team styled 'the Castle Keepers'--a reference to the castellated tower of the collegiate gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
building. A colourful and very public campaign was waged over some six months, securing the firm support of the Perth City Council. Continuous media exposure hastened the capitulation of premier Brian Burke
Brian Burke
Brian Thomas Burke was Labor premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988...
and his withdrawal of the demolition proposal at a meeting with the Castle Keepers' leader Jean Jenkins. The building was formally declared saved at a huge public celebration in November, 1985, and was subsequently placed on the Register of the National Estate. The 1910 'Castle' was the first significant Perth public building to be preserved through public protest since the fight for the Barracks Arch in the 1960s. In 1989, the Castle Keepers rallied for a second time under the then Senator Jenkins to defeat another destructive proposal for the building, raised by entrepreneur Warren Anderson
Warren Anderson (businessman)
Warren Perry Anderson is an Australian businessman and speculative investor whose net worth in 1990 was estimated by the BRW magazine at $190 million, though the following year he was reported to have debts of $500 million. He has been a principal in major developments in Perth, Darwin and Melbourne...
.
Political career
Following earlier involvement in student activism and the British anti-nuclear protest movement, Jean Jenkins joined the Australia PartyAustralia Party
The Australia Party was the name of a minor political party in Australia ....
in Perth during the 1970s and the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
in 1980. She acted as the party's Western Australian division policy coordinator in education, and in immigration/ethnic affairs for several years, and was elected as divisional ombudsman.
Election to the Senate
In 1987, she was endorsed as the lead Senate candidate in the federal election (called as a double dissolution) and was successful, commencing a 3-year term in July, 1987.She was probably the first-ever senator to address an astonished chamber in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, during her maiden speech, in reinforcing a point that language unfamiliarity was a serious impediment to migrant schoolchildren. She tendered a quotation in the Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
during her valedictory speech in May 1990.
Range of portfolios
As a member of the very active small team of Australian Democrats senators led by Janine HainesJanine Haines
Janine Haines, AM , Australian politician, was the first female federal parliamentary leader of an Australian political party. An Australian Democrat, she was also the first member of that party to enter the federal parliament after the party's formation...
, Jenkins was immediately thrust into the limelight as a national spokesperson on, inter alia, immigration
Immigration policy
An immigration policy is any policy of a state that deals with the transit of persons across its borders into the country, but especially those that intend to work and to remain in the country. Immigration policies can range from allowing no migration at all to allowing most types of migration,...
and multicultural ethnic affairs, Territory affairs including a fierce battle for use of the Hare-Clark method
Single transferable vote
The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...
for the ACT electoral system, and a range of other controversial legislation on war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s, X-rated videos and questionable revenue-raising measures of the then Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
administration.
In 1988 the then leader of the opposition, John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, made remarks that Australia should cut back Asian immigration. He was resolutely attacked by Jean Jenkins in both the parliament and media, as she emphasised the Democrats' commitment to a non-discriminatory
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
immigration programme. She followed up by introducing 46 amendments
Amend (motion)
-Explanation and Use:-Main Motions:Any main motion and any motion to amend may be amended. However, a motion to amend a motion to amend may not be amended, due to the overly complex parliamentary situation that would frequently result.-Secondary Motions:...
to Labor's Immigration Bill, all of which were defeated by the combined votes of the government and coalition opposition.
She regularly employed the Senate's Adjournment debate
Adjournment debate
In the Westminster system, an adjournment debate is a debate on the motion, "That this House do now adjourn." In practice, this is a way of enabling the House to have a debate on a subject without considering a substantive motion.- Types of debate :...
to criticise and publicise extensive human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses including Aboriginal deaths in custody
Aboriginal deaths in custody
Aboriginal deaths in custody became a major issue because of a widespread perception that a disproportionate number of Indigenous Australians were dying in jail after being arrested by police...
and the post-war child-migration
Child migration
Child migration is the migration of children, without their parents, to another country or region. In many cases this has involved the forced migration of children in care, to be used as child labour.- Australia :...
scandals (simultaneously raised in the UK by Margaret Humphreys
Margaret Humphreys
Margaret Humphreys CBE OAM is a social worker, author and whistleblower from Nottingham, England. In 1987, she investigated and brought to public attention the British government programme of Home Children...
). During her three-year term in the Senate, Jean Jenkins delivered over 500 speeches and issued 430 media statements on issues ranging from wildlife and heritage conservation to the impact of high home-mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
interest rates, on which she organised a national campaign in 1989. Her final parliamentary initiative was an unsuccessful private senator's bill seeking to establish a national register of foreign ownership
Foreign ownership
Foreign ownership refers to the complete or majority ownership/control of a business or resource in a country by individuals who are not citizens of that country, or by companies whose headquarters are not in that country.-See also:...
of Australian business and real estate.
Election defeat and ousting from party
At the 1990 election, she polled 9.7% including the highest personal 'below the line'Group voting ticket
Group voting tickets are a way to simplify preferential voting, usually in an election held under the single transferable vote or the alternative vote system....
vote for any candidate, but was denied essential preferences by the major parties which her frankness had alienated, and she was defeated. For a year she continued to serve as an adviser to the Democrats' leader Janet Powell
Janet Powell
Janet Frances Powell in Nhill, Victoria, is an Australian politician.She was appointed a senator for Victoria, representing the Australian Democrats, upon the resignation of the party's founder, Don Chipp, in 1986. She was elected the following year. She became the third leader of the party, from...
who was controversially deposed by a party-room coup on 19 August 1991. In 1993, the Western Australian division was subjected to an abortive politico-financial takeover bid funded by businessmen John Poynton, Harold Clough and others. Eleven elected party officers, Jenkins included, instituted a protective Supreme Court action, a technicality which led to their expulsion in 1994 by the party's national executive. As a result, a majority of Western Australian members left the party.
Support for The Greens
Jean Jenkins remained loyal to the Democrats for almost a decade—during which the party consistently rejected her applications for reinstatement—but finally joined The Greens (WA) (affiliated with the Australian GreensAustralian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
) and, in 2004, unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of Brand
Division of Brand
The Division of Brand is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The division was named after Sir David Brand, a former state premier, and is a safe Labor seat held by Gary Gray who first won the seat at the 2007 federal election...
—which was retained by then Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
who had feared defeat when the Greens declined to preference him. However, her action achieved its tactical objective of increasing the vote for the Greens' Senate candidate Rachel Siewert
Rachel Siewert
Rachel Mary Siewert is an Australian Greens politician who was elected to represent Western Australia in the Australian Senate at the 2004 federal election....
, who was elected for a six-year term.