Dorothy Jelicich
QSO
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Hamilton West
In office
25 November 1972 – 30 October 1975
Preceded byLeslie Munro
Succeeded byMike Minogue
Personal details
Born
Dorothy Catherine MacDonald

(1928-01-19)19 January 1928
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died10 April 2015(2015-04-10) (aged 87)
Ōtāhuhu, New Zealand
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Paul Stephen Jelicich
​
​
(m. 1949; died 2014)​

Dorothy Catherine Jelicich QSO (née MacDonald, 19 January 1928 – 10 April 2015) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. She served one term in the House of Representatives representing the Hamilton West electorate, and was afterwards a city councillor in Hamilton and then Manukau.

Early life and family

Jelicich was born in Sydney on 19 January 1928.[1] Her father was a semi-skilled labourer.[2] She was educated at Epsom Girls' Grammar School and the Elam School of Fine Arts. In 1949 she married Paul Jelicich, a bricklayer,[1] and, with family support, she opened a restaurant in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe.[2] Purchasing a small dairy farm at Bombay in 1964, the couple took up farming, but in 1970 she became a shoe store manager and then a trade union organiser.[2]

Political career

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1972–1975 37th Hamilton West Labour

Jelicich, through her union job, became a member of the Labour Party and became a member of the executive of the Manurewa electorate and president of the Papatoetoe electorate committee. She stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for Hauraki in 1969.[3] In 1972 she won the seat of Hamilton West for Labour by defeating Hamilton City Councillor Derek Heather after the incumbent, Leslie Munro of the National Party, retired.[4] She became the first woman in New Zealand parliamentary history to open the Address-in-Reply debate.[5] In 1975 she lost her seat to Mike Minogue.[4]

Following her defeat she stood for the vice-presidency of the Labour Party at the 1976 party conference. She lost to Gerald O'Brien, placing second in the delegate ballot with a credible 344 votes to O'Brien's 585.[6] In early 1977 she stood as a candidate for the Labour Party nomination in the Māngere by-election. She had the backing of both the outgoing MP Colin Moyle, Labour leader Bill Rowling, but regardless she lost out to future Prime Minister David Lange.[7] She contested the Hamilton West electorate once more in the 1978 election.[8]

She briefly served on the Hamilton City Council after winning a by-election in 1979.[9] She unsuccessfully stood for the Labour nomination at the 1980 Onehunga by-election. Just as in Mangere she gathered much support among local members but again missed out, narrowly losing to Fred Gerbic.[10][11] In 1982 (via another by-election) she became a Manukau City Councillor, representing Mangere Ward until she retired in 1995.[12]

Honours and awards

In the 1986 New Year Honours, Jelicich was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services.[13] In 1993, she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.[14]

Death

Jelicich died on 10 April 2015 at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland at the age of 87, having been predeceased by her husband in October the previous year.[15] She was survived by their three children.[16]

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Jelicich, Dorothy". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Thomson Gale. 1 January 2007. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Phillips, Jock (15 November 2012). "Understanding class: Dorothy Jelicich". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "21 new members in House". The Press. 27 November 1972. p. 3.
  4. 1 2 Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand parliamentary record, 1840–1984 (4 ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. pp. 208, 220. OCLC 154283103.
  5. ↑ "Obituaries — Dorothy Catherine Jelicich QSO, Hon Ronald Leslie Bailey QSO". Hansard (debates). New Zealand Parliament. 28 April 2015. p. 1. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Party Chief Plans to Seek Ideas". The New Zealand Herald. 12 May 1976. p. 3.
  7. ↑ "16 now chase Labour nod for Mangere". Auckland Star. 15 February 1977. p. 48.
  8. ↑ Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.
  9. ↑ "Former Hamilton West MP dies". Waikato Times. 14 April 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Labour's Onehunga line-up". The Evening Post. 9 May 1980. p. 1.
  11. ↑ "Gerbic Nod". The Evening Post. 10 May 1980. p. 1.
  12. ↑ "Dorothy Jelicich passes away". labour.org.nz. 10 April 2015. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "No. 50362". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 31 December 1985. p. 31.
  14. ↑ "The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 – register of recipients". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  15. ↑ "Death Notice & Guest Book Preview for Paul Stephen Jelicich". The New Zealand Herald. 13 October 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  16. ↑ "Dorothy Jelicich obituary". The New Zealand Herald. 13 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dorothy Jelicich.
  • Women in Parliamentary Life 1970–1990: Hocken Lecture 1993 by Marilyn Waring, p. 32 (Hocken Library, University of Otago, 1994); ISBN 0-902041-61-4
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