Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Amy Duncan

Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh) (13:24): Like the member for Oakleigh, I pay tribute to Amy Duncan, who passed away this week at the age of 89. Amy was a remarkable woman. She was a nurse, a midwife, an ALP member and a lifelong social justice advocate. Amy fought apartheid in South Africa before fleeing to the United Kingdom, where she kept fighting for people who needed her to fight for them. She would often tell the story of demonstrating on the streets of London after then education minister Margaret Thatcher cut free milk for children in schools. Amy and other parents took to the streets with the catchcry ‘Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher’. Amy loved a demo. In fact she took me to my first demo, which was a massive one staged against the Howard government’s industrial relations reforms.

I joined the Labor Party 20 years ago this month, and Amy was the first person to greet me when I attended my first branch meeting. Amy was secretary of the branch, and she ran the branch like clockwork. She was passionate about so many causes and issues. A founding member of Labor for Refugees, she was also passionate about the safety of women and children. In 2014, when the Premier, who was then opposition leader, announced a royal commission into family violence at the ALP state conference, Amy, who was sitting next to me at the time, was in tears because she was in her 80s by then and she finally saw something being done about this in a serious way. Amy will be missed by all who knew her and loved her, especially her family, and I send them my sincere condolences.