User:The Drover's Wife/Carolyn Hirsh

Carolyn Dorothy Hirsh (born 1 August 1937) is an Australian politician. She was an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1992, and served as Government Whip from 1988 to 1992. After her defeat at the 1992 election and two failed bids for federal parliament in the 1990s, she re-entered state parliament at the 2002 election after an unexpected win in the safe Liberal Legislative Council seat of Silvan Province. She was forced to resign from the Labor Party in September 2004 after being charged with driving a car without a license, having been charged with drink-driving earlier that year, sat as an independent until being re-admitted to the Labor caucus in November 2005, but was forced to resign from the party a second time in June 2006 after a second drink-driving charge. She retired from politics at the 2006 election.

Career and Legislative Assembly term

Hirsh was born in Melbourne and attended Colac High School. She studied at both Geelong and Melbourne Teachers' Colleges, and was a special education teacher at both primary and secondary levels from 1958 to 1980. She received a psychology degree with honours from Monash University in 1980, and was a psychologist with the state Education Department from 1980 until her election to parliament in 1985. She joined the Labor Party in the 1960s over her opposition to the Vietnam War, served on its housing policy committee, and was president of the Deakin federal electorate committee from 1980 to 1984.

Hirsh was elected to the Legislative Assembly at the 1985 state election, winning the Liberal-held open seat of Wantirna. She was a member of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board from 1985 to 1988, and served as a member of the Social Development Committee. She was promoted to Government Whip after the 1988 election. Her seat was altered by a redistribution ahead of the 1992 election, and she contested and lost the seat of Knox to Liberal Hurtle Lupton, one of many Labor members to be defeated at that election. She worked as a psychologist in private practice from 1992 to 1999, apart from a stint as a policy adviser to Labor Senator Olive Zakharov in 1994. She was a lecturer at the Chisholm Institute of TAFE from 1999 until 2002. She was the Labor candidate for the federal seat of La Trobe at both the 1996 election and 1998 election, but lost to Liberal Fran Bailey on both occasions.

Legislative Council term

Hirsh was preselected as the Labor candidate for the safe Liberal Legislative Council seat of Silvan Province at the 2002 state election, which was widely thought to be unwinnable for Labor. However, Labor went on to win one of their largest victories ever, and Hirsh defeated Liberal incumbent Wendy Smith. She was elected chair of the parliamentary Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee in 2003. In June 2004, Hirsh was driving home from a Labor function when she was breath-tested and found to have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .07, more than the legal driving limit of .05. Her licence was suspended for six months, and she was forced to resign from the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee.

On 17 September 2004, Hirsh was again pulled over by police while driving, and was found to be driving while disqualified. The car she was driving also did not have a current registration sticker displayed, which is illegal, and it was reported that she gave police a false name. That night, Premier Steve Bracks publicly demanded that Hirsh quit the party, stating that "there is no room in the Labor Party for people who had so openly flouted the law". Despite pressure from the Labor Party and the media, Hirsh announced her intention to remain in Parliament as an independent. However, she continued to vote with the Labor Party, and her application in late 2005 to rejoin the Party was accepted. She rejoined on 10 November 2005, saying that the Labor Party is very much a part of "who she is".

In October 2004, Hirsh told The Age newspaper that she had been battling depression, caused by the suicide of her eldest daughter in 2001, and said that while this was not an excuse for her behaviour, it was the reason.

On 21 June 2006, she was again found by police to have been driving under the influence of alcohol with a BAC of .065, and is expected to be charged on summons for drink driving. Premier Steve Bracks announced that Hirsh had admitted herself to a hospital for psychiatric treatment, and that he would move to expel her from the Labor Party caucus a second time. She resigned from the party on 24 June.

References

Category:1937 births Category:Living people Category:Australian Labor Party politicians Category:Australian politicians convicted of crimes Category:Independent politicians in Australia Category:Monash University alumni Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Category:Politicians from Melbourne Category:Australian schoolteachers Category:Australian women in politics