Australia updates 2006

Preparations are taking place in Adelaide for Australian Section Triennial Meeting from May 26th to 28th 2006. It is an exciting time when members from each state branch and also from New Zealand take part. Because of the great distances in Australia this is the time when many of us finally get to know each other face to face. New office bearers will be elected and many workshops are being planned. Section executive members teleconference four times a year.

Mary Ziesak has been elected to be the liaison person for Australia to the Cuba Conference in November 2006. Some Section members are hoping to attend. Information has gone out to members to claim the date. Women’s NGO’s and Government Women’s Policy Units, University and College Peace and Justice Departments and Trade Unions will be notified and kept up to date with the planning.

International Women’s Day was celebrated by special UNIFEM fundraising breakfasts, rallies, meetings, street marches and WILPF women participated and provided speakers at some events. The Queensland Branch celebrated 100 years of having the vote by successfully performing three small street theatre scenes in Brisbane on IWD.

The National Project “Children of the Gulf War” photographic exhibition continues to be shown in cities and towns around the country. The exhibition photographs are the work of the Japanese photographer Takashi Morisumi and depict everyday life in Iraq but also focus on children and birth deformities caused by the depleted uranium. Working with other groups we continue to lobby our government to leave uranium in the ground.


The ACT branch put on a “Peace Festival Week” late last year which included seminars, meetings and an exhibition. The anti war toys project nurtured by the Tasmanian branch “Toys for Joy” is a continuing long running project. Several states worked on the “Mayors for Peace” project and this is being followed up. “Women in Black” keep a fortnightly vigil on the steps of parliament House in Adelaide. We financially assisted two of the four Australian women who attended the CSW Meeting in New York. The World March of Women Solidarity Quilt was received in Canberra at a function and then accompanied on to Japan by Lyn Lane.

We were proud to have Chris Henderson as our Representative at the Hiroshima Peace Meeting last August and she has spoken at a number of meetings about her experience since. She was the only attendee from Australia!

On the 18th of March South Australia and Tasmania are having state elections and WILPF Women will stand for Parliament in those States – one in South Australia and two in Tasmania.



We continue to educate and sustain ourselves and to promote Wilpf’s aims at every opportunity by collaborating with other groups. Several states continue to gain new members.