Museum Of Australian Democracy At Old Parliament House

Are you looking for some outdoor fun these school holidays? Soak up the sunshine at Open Air PlayUP! We've got giant games for little visitors every weekday in our beautiful Senate Gardens.
Open Air PlayUP starts today! 10am-5pm every weekday until October 12. Learn more: https://www.moadoph.gov.au/events/open-ai r-playup/

'...these women have shown other Indigenous women that there is a place for our voices in Parliament. Slowly, but surely, more will follow in their footsteps. '
Writer Celeste Liddle reflects on the significance and impact of Nova Peris and Linda Burney, the first Indigenous women in federal parliament: https://bit.ly/2RbkMwr

‘What I am absolutely confident of is, it will be easier for the next woman and the woman after that...and I'm proud of that'
Australia's 27th prime minister, Julia Gillard, was born #OnThisDay in 1961. She was the first woman to serve as prime minister and deputy prime minister in Australia.
Born in the town of Barry in southern Wales, Gillard emigrated to Australia in 1966. She became involved with Labor politics at university and served as the final president of the Austr...alian Union of Students (1983-84)
After graduating, Gillard worked for law firm Slater & Gordon, becoming the youngest-ever partner at the age of 29. From 1996-98, she worked for Victorian party leader John Brumby, and while there drafted new rules which allowed more women to enter state and federal parliaments as Labor candidates.
In 2007, Gillard became the first woman to be Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. She controversially took office in June 2010 as Prime Minister, replacing Kevin Rudd.
Julia Gillard is featured in our exhibition Breaking Through, a celebration of women in parliament. Learn more: https://breakingthrough.moadoph.gov.au/pr ofi…/julia-gillard/
📷Julia Gillard by Sophie Deane. MoAD Collection
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75 years ago this week, the first women elected to federal parliament delivered their first speeches...
Both Dame Dorothy Tangney, speaking in the Senate, and Dame Enid Lyons, speaking in the House of Representatives, used the occasion to speak of the honour and responsibility of being the first women to address either chamber.
From 1940s Australia, hear Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons - their own words, in their own voices: https://breakingthrough.moadoph.gov.au/th e-women/
... While parliament wasn't recorded at the time, both women re-recorded their speeches shortly afterwards. These recordings are now available on our Breaking Through exhibition website.
📷Dame Dorothy Tangney [detail]. Illustration by Holly Gorman; Dame Enid Lyons [detail]. Illustration by Madelaine Patching
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Activist Faith Bandler was born #OnThisDay in 1918. She played a critical role in the campaign for Indigenous rights in Australia, particularly during the 1967 referendum as an organiser for the 'Yes' campaign.
Bandler was born in Tumbulgum, NSW to a father from Vanuatu and a mother of Indian and Scottish ancestry, and from an early age, took a strong interest in civil rights, both in Australia and the world.
After serving in the Women's Land Army during WWII, Bandler becam...e an activist, working with Jessie Street and Pearl (Gambanyi) Gibbs to start the Aboriginal Australian Fellowship and the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement in the 1950s.
After refusing to accept an MBE 'from the empire that enslaved my father', Bander was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1984 and Companion of the Order of Australia in 2009.
Bandler died in 2015 at the age of 96.
📷 Faith Bandler portrait by Alexandra Asovtseff, courtesy National Library of Australia
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Come one, come all to MoAD’s Behind The Lines exhibition, where there are games and activities the whole family will enjoy! 🎪✨🤡🦁🎩
Your children can even dress up as their favourite circus characters while they play political Guess Who or Snap!
... Learn more: https://www.moadoph.gov.au/learning/famil ies/
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Prime Minister Billy Hughes may have been expelled from three parties, but today we're throwing him his own!
In celebration of our 7th PM's birthday, we've put together a Billy Hughes edition of #TriviaTuesday...
Easy: Which of these jobs DIDN'T Hughes hold?
... A ) Umbrella mender B ) Oven maker C ) Milkman D ) Teacher
Medium: How many federal seats did Hughes represent? Can you name them?
Hard: How many political parties was Hughes a member of? (bonus points if you can name each of them!)
📷 Billy Hughes screenprint by artist Alison Alder
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‘When having my portrait painted I don't want justice, I want mercy.’ - Prime Minister Billy Hughes
Small in stature but larger than life, Australia's 7th prime minister, Billy Hughes, was born #OnThisDay in 1862.
... William Morris 'Billy' Hughes was born in London and arrived in Australia in 1884. Before becoming prime minister in 1915, Hughes worked as a stockman, pineapple picker, stone-breaker constructing railways, coastal ship steward, coal hulk guard and eventually purchased a shop, where he repaired locks and umbrellas, ground knives and sold second hand books.
After making politics his career in 1901, Hughes remained in parliament for a record 51 years.
Learn more: https://primeministers.moadoph.gov.au/pri me-mi…/billy-hughes
📷Photographic image of Billy Hughes on glazed ceramic tile [edited]. MoAD Collection
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#OnThisDay in 1951, a referendum was held, proposing a change to the Constitution that would allow the government to ban the Communist Party of Australia.
But how did we end up there?
During the Cold War, the Communist Party was seen as a threat to Australia’s society, economy and security. In 1950, the federal Parliament passed a law banning the Communist Party of Australia, but the High Court overturned it, ruling that it was constitutionally invalid.
... In response, Prime Minister Robert Menzies took the decision to a referendum, where the proposed amendment was rejected by the slimmest of margins. 49.44% of voters around Australia approved the amendment, and Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania all recorded a majority of ‘yes’ votes.
Learn more: https://magnacarta.moadoph.gov.au/story/c ommunist-party/
📷 Menzies government pamphlet outlining the ‘yes’ case against the 'Red Threat'. MoAD Collection.
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Australia's 26th prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was born #OnThisDay in 1957.
Rudd served as prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and again from June to September 2013. One of his most significant achievements as prime minister was the Apology to the Stolen Generations on 13 February 2008:
'To the stolen generations, I say the following: as Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry.’ Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, 13 February 2008, House of Representatives.
... 📷 Rudd in 2007, the year he became Australia's 26th prime minister. Wikimedia Commons
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#OnThisDay in 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant women the right to vote.
The change was made by the Electoral Act, 1893, passed after more than two decades of campaigning by suffragists including Kate Sheppard, Sophia Taylor and Mary Ann Müller.
The New Zealand experience was regarded as a model for Australian suffragists, used as evidence to support their campaign. As the Hon. R. Oliver points out in this pamphlet, 'it was predi...cted that it [women's suffrage] would breed discord in families, but since it has been granted, nothing has been heard of such discord.'
📷 Pamphlet on women’s suffrage in NZ and Australia, 1907. MoAD Collection.
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We're heading over to the House of Reps for today’s #TriviaTuesday!
Easy: Who was the last Speaker of the House of Representatives to wear the traditional formal regalia of full-bottomed wig and gown?
Medium: Which of the following was ruled as being ‘not in order’ by the Speaker of the House when attempted to be used to support a speech being made by a member of the House of Representatives?
... a) Ugg boots b) a tape recording c) a heroin ‘cap’ d) a gynaecological instrument
Hard: Under the subheading 'Ceremonial and Traditional', the House of Representatives Practice (6th edition) advises that the Serjeant-at-Arms leads the Speaker into the chamber at the start of proceedings each day, bearing the Mace on his or her right shoulder. What is the procedure regarding the Mace if the Speaker is absent?
a) No difference b) it moves to left shoulder c) it is cradled in the left arm d) it is not brought into chamber
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#OnThisDay in 2013, Tony Abbott became Australia's 28th prime minister.
Formerly a journalist and Press Secretary to John Hewson, Abbott was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994. He entered Cabinet in 2001 as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business, at the same time becoming Leader of the House.
Following the Coalition’s defeat in 2007, Abbott became Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, resigning in... 2009 in protest over Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull’s support for the Rudd government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. He challenged Turnbull for party leadership and won, and led the Coalition to a narrow defeat in 2010.
On 14 September 2015, Tony Abbott was defeated in a leadership challenge by Malcolm Turnbull with 44 votes to Turnbull’s 54.
📷 Bike owned and used by Prime Minister Tony Abbott during his annual Pollie Pedal fundraising rides. MoAD Collection. Photography: Mark Nolan.
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Today is Australian Citizenship Day, and we were honoured to help celebrate by hosting a special citizenship ceremony with Australian Department of Home Affairs in King's Hall this morning.
Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, David Coleman, welcomed 30 people from 14 countries.
A huge congratulations to everyone who took the pledge here at MoAD today, and to all new Australian citizens.
... #australiancitizenship #auscitz70
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To our fathers’ fathers The pain, the sorrow; To our children’s children The glad tomorrow.
... Oodgeroo Noonuccal, 'A Song of Hope'
Political activist, poet, environmentalist, educator and campaigner for Aboriginal rights, Oodgeroo Noonuccal died #OnThisDay in 1993.
Born on 3 November 1920 in Brisbane, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (known until 1988 as Kath Walker) emerged as a prominent political activist and writer in the 1960s. In 1964, Noonuccal's 'We are Going' became the first poetry publication by an Aboriginal Australian.
A campaigner for equal citizenship rights, she led, with Faith Bandler, a delegation to Prime Minister Robert Menzies. Their work culminated in the landmark 1967 referendum which empowered the federal government to legislate on Aboriginal affairs.
📷A sculpture at the University of Queensland commemorates Oodgeroo Noonuccal with the final lines from her poem 'A Song of Hope'. Wikimedia Commons.
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Does democracy need a reboot? What would that even look like?
On 5 September 2018, Professor Anne Tiernan, Professor Ian Chubb AC and Heather Ridout AO addressed the National Press Club on the topic of 'Rebooting Democracy'... learn more about their thoughts on rebuilding trust and demanding change: https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/for-futur e-s-sake/
#InternationalDayofDemocracy

Anna Bligh became the 37th premier of Queensland #OnThisDay in 2007. She was the first woman to hold the position.
As Premier, Bligh was widely praised for her leadership during the 2011 Queensland floods. Her name featured in Twitter's top 10 trending topics worldwide after her 'We are Queenslanders' speech in response to the disaster.
'As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to reme...mber who we are... We are Queenslanders.' (Sydney Morning Herald, 13 January 2011)
📷 Anna Bligh, 2009. Newspix
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#OnThisDay in 1918, George Reid died in London at age 73. He was the first former Australian prime minister to die.
Reid was a gifted speaker, astute politician and important contributor to the early days of Federation. After retiring from parliament in 1908, he was appointed Australia's first High Commissioner to London, a post he held from 1910 to 1916. He became a Member of the House of Commons in 1916 - the first Australian to sit as a representative in three different ...parliaments (New South Wales, Australian and British).
Learn more about Australia's fourth prime minister: https://primeministers.moadoph.gov.au/pri me-min…/george-reid
📷 Portrait of George Reid, 1913. Wikimedia Commons
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