Jean Melzer

Jean Isabel Melzer ; 7 February 1926 – 18 June 2013) was an Australian politician and activist. She was a Senator for Victoria from 1974 to 1981, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). A long-time supporter of the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, she left the party in 1984 over its failure to ban uranium mining and stood unsuccessfully for the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the 1984 federal election.

Early life Melzer was born on 7 February 1926 in Elsternwick, Victoria. She was the daughter of Lilian Rosa and George Kenneth McLeod. Her father, a World War I veteran, was an accountant and civil servant.

Melzer was educated at Ormond State School, Ormond East State School, and Gardenvale Central School, completing her secondary education at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School from 1939 to 1941. Her father committed suicide in 1940 and she had to leave school early to support her family. She began working as a clerk with the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission and later worked for radio station 3AW and for the Building Workers' Industrial Union. In 1978 she was the first woman elected as the Secretary of the Labor Caucus. Her final term ended on 30 June 1981.

She stood unsuccessfully as the lead Victorian senate candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party in the 1984 election. She received 7.1% of the vote.

Melzer was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2006.

Personal life Melzer had four children with her first husband, William Griffiths, whom she married in 1946. She was divorced in 1961 and remarried in the same year to Wilton Melzer, with whom she had another two children. Her second marriage also ended in divorce in 1974, the same year she was elected to the Senate. She died on 18 June 2013.