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Irina Patsi Dunn (born 17 March 1948)David Black (1996). 9780730976165, Western Australian Parliamentary History Project. ISBN 9780730976165 is an Australian writer, social activist and filmmaker, who served in the Australian Senate between 1988 and 1990. Born in Shanghai, Dunn grew up in Australia and studied at the University of Sydney.
In 1988 she became a senator representing the Nuclear Disarmament Party. She was chosen following the disqualification from parliament of the man originally elected from that party in the 1987 election, Robert Wood, who was ruled ineligible as he did not hold Australian citizenship. Following her refusal to resign to allow Wood to return to the Senate once he had become a citizen, she was expelled from the party and sat as an independent. She was defeated at the 1990 election.
Dunn was the executive director of the New South Wales Writers' Centre from December 1992 to 2008.
In the early 1980s she married Brett Collins, a convicted bank robber turned prison activist and co-ordinator of Justice Action, whom she met through her work editing a prison magazine. They separated within a few years and subsequently divorced. Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 1984 Throughout this period Dunn was engaged with political and social issues.
Dunn was Senator for New South Wales first representing the Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP), then as an independent. She became a Senator—notably, the first with Asian ancestry —in unusual circumstances, when Robert Wood was disqualified under section 44 of the constitution from holding the seat he had won in the 1987 general election.Holland, I., Section 44 of the Constitution, Department of the Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2004, The High Court of Australia sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns found that a recount of the NSW Senate ballots could occur and Dunn, who had been the second person on the NDP's New South Wales Senate ticket, was elected.In Re Wood 1988 HCA 22 The NDP asked her to resign her seat to allow Wood to take it up once he had taken up Australian citizenship, but Dunn refused, leading to her expulsion from the NDP, after which she sat in parliament as an independent. She was a Senator from 21 July 1988 until 30 June 1990, being defeated in the 1990 election.Parliamentary handbook online, Irina Dunn Biography, retrieved July 2007 During her time in office Dunn was active on one of the Australian Senate committees: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. She was responsible for an extensive minority report to that committee's report Visits to Australia by Nuclear Powered or Armed Vessels.
Dunn also stood for the Balmain/Rozelle Ward of Leichhardt Council in 1999 on the "Community Independents" ticket but was unsuccessful.
Dunn coined the famous catch phrase: "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," which was subsequently popularised by Gloria Steinem and became a popular slogan among feminists. When Time magazine published an article attributing the saying to Steinem, Steinem wrote a letter saying the phrase had been coined by Dunn: Letters, Time magazine, US edition, 16 September 2000 and Australian edition, 9 October 2000. Later, U2 used the phrase in their song "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World".
Irina Dunn was the executive director of the New South Wales Writers' Centre from December 1992. She resigned in 2008. Her experience in that role led her to write The Writer's Guide: A companion to writing for pleasure or publication.
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