Jean Isobelle Melzer was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Senator

Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

 representing the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 and the state of Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

. She was elected on 18 May 1974 she served two terms, she was defeated at 1980 elections

Australian federal election, 1980

Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 October 1980. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Malcolm Fraser with coalition partner the National Country Party led by Doug...

 as she was placed third on the Labor ticket. Her final term ended on 30 June 1981.

She also stood as the lead Victorian senate candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party

Nuclear Disarmament Party

The Nuclear Disarmament Party was a political party in Australia. The party was formed in 1984 and enjoyed considerable initial success.-Foundation, the 1984 election, and the split:...

in the 1984 election. She received 7.1% of the vote, but no seat.

Jean Melzer has been the president of U3A Network Victoria.

Potential sources

• MS 3683 Records of the Women's Electoral Lobby (Australia) Series 7 : Political lobbying records, 1972-89 folder 18-19 held at NLA
• Paper presented at National Labor Women’s Conference, Canberra, 29 Jan-1 Feb 1982
• Paper presented at 2nd Women and Labour Conference, Melbourne, 17 May 1980 paper called "Is Parliament Relevant to Women and. Their Search for Identity?" http://www.jstor.org/pss/27508443