Vanessa Goodwin: Australian politician who helped overturn convictions for consensual gay sex in Tasmania

Nudged into public service by her mother, also a politician, she went on to become both a Liberal Party and community stalwart in the state

Goodwin was honoured at the Sydney Mardi Gras where revellers wore black armbands in remembrance (Facebook)

Vanessa Goodwin’s decision to enter politics was perhaps inevitable. The former Tasmanian Attorney General, who died aged 48, was born in Hobart, Tasmania, to Grant Goodwin and Edyth Langham-Goodwin, a well-known stalwart of the Tasmanian Liberal Party.

She grew up, her childhood friend Bridget Rheinberger recalled in a tearful eulogy, “around horses and dogs”. Goodwin had a horse called Honey.

“She competed in one-day cross-country trials,” Rheinberger said. Officials often gave her a stern warning for speeding around the course. “Exercising her already well-developed diplomatic skills, Vanessa would always smile politely and agree she wouldn’t do it again – but she rarely slowed down.”

“I’ve grown up with the Liberal Party, it’s been like an extended family,” Goodwin told The Mercury newspaper in 2015. “I remember travelling around on the campaign trail when mum was a candidate.”

She recalled being used as a “sandwich board” to promote her mother’s campaign when she was 15. “Not the thing a teenage girl would really want to be doing,” she said.

The teenager Goodwin really wanted to be was a criminologist. While she was still a student at St Michael’s Collegiate Anglican school in in 1986, Goodwin was taken to sit in on the trial of murderer Maurice Huish, who dressed as a woman before stabbing his friend to death in a jealous rage.

Goodwin said: “It took police a long time to track this guy down because the high heels threw them off. Just being a kid going to watch the case, I found it absolutely fascinating. That got me hooked on criminology.”

Goodwin subsequently attended the University of Tasmania, where she studied for both a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of law. She gained a masters in criminology from Cambridge University before returning to the University of Tasmania to complete a PhD.

There, she was mentored by Tasmanian Governor Kate Warner, who also taught her as an undergraduate. Warner said: “I remember her as a very engaged, very determined student.” She added that Goodwin demonstrated that “you don’t have to be a loud and aggressive leader to be an effective one… What a wonderful character she was, how ethical she was, as well as being very intelligent and empathetic.”

Goodwin’s empathy and passion for equality extended to everyone in Tasmanian society. Prior to becoming a politician, she spent 11 years working for the Department of Police and Public Safety, where she had responsibility for managing several crime prevention initiatives including Project U-Turn, which was credited with turning round the lives of many young offenders.

The rehabilitation of young offenders was of particular interest to Goodwin. In 2011 she co-authored a study into intergenerational crime, which helped increase the understanding of the effects of a mother’s criminal history on her children.

It was while working as associate to Chief Justice Guy Green that Goodwin turned her attention to politics. She was not immediately successful. She contested in vain her first two elections before becoming Tasmanian Legislative Council member for Pembroke in a 2009 by-election. Standing as the Liberal candidate, Goodwin won by a large margin.

In her inaugural speech, she set out the changes she hoped to see, saying, “a recurrent theme throughout the Pembroke electorate, and I believe throughout Tasmania as a whole, is the desire for good government”.

She added: “There is a lot of cynicism and distrust of politicians and perhaps this is not surprising… It is imperative that we restore trust in government decisions… Without transparency and accountability, no government can be truly legitimate.”

Goodwin held her seat in the general election of 2013 and was subsequently appointed Attorney General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Corrections and Minister for the Arts, as well as Leader for the Government in the Legislative Council.

Of Goodwin’s political reputation, The Mercury observed: “She was known for being cool in a crisis, for meticulous attention to detail, even-handedness and a powerful work ethic while as an individual she was well liked across the political spectrum, loved by staff and colleagues.”

During Goodwin’s time in office, she developed policies on prison reform and put forward a plan to abolish suspended sentences. She said her interest in politics went hand in hand with her background in criminology: “The opportunity to influence policy is what I’ve been working to do all along.”

Goodwin devoted her life to her work and neither married nor had children. She said: “I don’t know whether I’d call it a sacrifice. I think it’s just the way life panned out. Going off to study at Cambridge and doing the PhD, that becomes all-consuming and then getting into politics. It hasn’t been a conscious choice, it’s just the way life has unfolded.”

Goodwin affected the lives of a number of inmates at Risdon Prison, where she supported the government’s Breaking the Cycle initiative and arts outreach.

After she was diagnosed with multiple brain tumours in March last year, her childhood friend, Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman, said: “I’ve known Vanessa all my life… I consider her one of my close friends and one of my most trusted and reliable workmates… [she is] held in very high regard by people in the community, she’s hardworking, she is warm-hearted, she’s very intelligent and she’s very committed to her job.”

However, Goodwin’s failing health forced her to resign in October, triggering a by-election that saw the Liberal Party lose to Labour.

Goodwin was remembered with a special homage at the Sydney Mardi Gras parade, where revellers donned black armbands in her honour. During her time in politics, Goodwin championed legislation to clear people charged under historical anti-gay laws.

Tasmania was the last Australian state to decriminalise gay sexual acts in 1997 – this left a number of individuals with criminal records that were only recently erased.

As Attorney General in 2015, Goodwin announced legislation “that will ensure that any individual prosecuted under these offences will no longer suffer distress or be disadvantaged by a criminal record in relation to travel, employment and volunteering.”

Gay rights campaigner Rodney Croome said: “Every single person there, no matter what their political views, wanted to wear a black armband in remembrance of Vanessa Goodwin and as a tribute to her and her great work.”

Her fellow Liberal Party politician Nic Street summed up Goodwin’s legacy: “Well regarded? She was actually loved... She was genuinely loved by people across this whole community in Tasmania.”

Vanessa Goodwin, Australian politician, born 22 April 1969, died 3 March 2018