36 Facts About Selina Siggins

Selina Sarah Elizabeth Siggins was an Australian political activist who became the first woman to stand for the Australian House of Representatives.

Selina Siggins ran as an independent at the 1903 federal election, the first at which women were eligible to be candidates.

Selina Siggins eventually fell out with the party over its refusal to endorse her as a candidate.

Selina Siggins's final run for parliament came at the 1922 federal election, where she became the first woman to stand for the Country Party.

Selina Siggins was born on 12 May 1878 near the small mining town of Hill End, New South Wales.

Selina Siggins was the only child of Sarah Charlotte and James Charters.

Selina Siggins's father, "an elderly, illiterate labourer" born in Ireland, died the year after her birth.

Selina Siggins's English-born mother remarried in 1880 to Jerome Anderson, and her daughter took his surname.

Selina Siggins attended the Tambaroora Public School, and in 1893 won a prize for an essay about the local district.

Selina Siggins served as the president of the Pyrmont branch of the Women's Political Labor League, and was one of the founders of the Cardboard Box Makers' Union, serving as its inaugural secretary.

Selina Siggins was later chosen by the Shop Assistants' Union as one of its delegates to the Sydney Labor Council, where she served on the organising committee and the anti-sweating committee.

In May 1904, Selina Siggins became the secretary of the Anti-Chinese and Asiatic League, which opposed "Chinese immigration and industry".

Selina Siggins stated that Chinese immigration constituted "a standing menace to the status of Australian citizenhood" and was likely to spread leprosy.

In June 1904, Selina Siggins launched a defamation suit against Henry Beech, a storekeeper in her home town of Hill End.

Selina Siggins campaigned for Labor candidates at the 1907 state election, but later distanced herself from the party.

Selina Siggins lived in Wellington for a period, working as an organiser for the Amalgamated Society of Merchant Assistants, and was interviewed by the Maoriland Worker about the differences between the labour movements in Australia and New Zealand.

In 1911, Selina Siggins was recruited by the Grey Industrial and Political Council to work as an organiser in the Grey District, on the West Coast of the South Island.

Selina Siggins campaigned for Paddy Webb, the Socialist candidate in Grey, at the 1911 general election.

Selina Siggins eventually returned to Australia, living in Adelaide for several years before settling in Wellington, New South Wales.

Selina Siggins originally announced that she too would stand for the Senate, but later decided to run for the House of Representatives.

Selina Siggins hoped to secure the endorsement of the Labor Party, but was unsuccessful.

Selina Siggins instead ran as an independent, describing herself as "the progressive and democratic candidate".

In 1909, Selina Siggins announced her intention to stand for the Division of Robertson at the next election.

Selina Siggins again hoped to secure the endorsement of the Labor Party, but the party had already preselected a candidate, William Johnson.

Selina Siggins requested that a second ballot be held, but the party refused and she announced that she would run as an independent.

At the 1918 South Australian state election, Selina Siggins became one of the first two women to stand for the Parliament of South Australia, along with Jeanne Young.

Selina Siggins ran for the House of Assembly as an independent, standing in the three-member Adelaide constituency.

Selina Siggins "attacked both the Labor Party and socialism" during the campaign.

Selina Siggins's platform included "more than fifty" different policies, including free schoolbooks, compulsory voting, proportional representation, benefits for returned servicemen, child endowment for large families, and price controls for food.

Selina Siggins polled just over two percent of the vote, and did not retain her deposit.

Selina Siggins made her final run for parliament at the 1922 federal election.

Selina Siggins polled only 1.7 percent of the vote, but her preferences aided in the election of the Nationalist candidate Neville Howse over Labor's Thomas Lavelle.

Selina Siggins' husband was an Irish-born widower, Christopher Hewitt Selina Siggins, whom she married on 1 January 1908 in Wellington, New South Wales.

Selina Siggins applied to the Australian Jockey Club to become a registered trainer, but was refused a licence.

Selina Siggins was widowed in 1946, and died in Ashbury on 30 November 1964, aged 86.

Selina Siggins was buried at the Field of Mars Cemetery.