Sue Yarrow

Sue Yarrow

Biography

Labor Party official and activist Sue Yarrow was part of the campaign to force the federal executive of the Labor Party to intervene in the Queensland branch, leading to federal intervention in 1980.

Born in Miles in 1947, Yarrow was educated at Miles Primary School, Miles State High School, Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School, and the University of Queensland.

Her first job was as a librarian with the BCC in 1965, which she resigned in 1969 to take up full time home duties, rear two sons, commence university studies and become involved in politics. Yarrow joined the Australian Labor Party in 1968. She became Secretary and President of her local Oxley branch, and Secretary and President of Queensland’s Labor Women’s Organisation at a time when women wanted to influence all aspects of policy.

Yarrow was also a member of Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) Queensland, becoming its president in 1975 and was a member of Women’s Liberation. Active in the Campaign Against Nuclear Power, Yarrow and was arrested for street marching during the Bjelke-Petersen Government’s restrictions on the right to march.

Yarrow joined the emerging Socialist Left faction within the Labor Party and was an active participant in the movement for reform of the party through the late 1970s. She was appointed as the first paid organiser for the Socialist Left faction and was elected to the Administration Committee, serving on the Disputes Tribunal and various Labor Party policy committees. In 1983, Yarrow became an Organiser then an Industrial Officer with the Federated Miscellaneous Workers’ Union, where she remained until 1992. She stood unsuccessfully on the 1983 Labor Party Senate ticket.

In 1992, Yarrow joined the Queensland public service, working until 2011 in the Departments of: Lands, Natural Resources, Emergency Services, Child Safety, and Local Government. She spent seven years working as Ministerial Senior Policy Advisor.