by Mary W Maxwell
Vanessa Goodwin passed away at age 48 on March 3, 2018. That was a sad day for GumshoeNews, as Vanessa had helped us get information on the Martin Bryant case.
She was Tasmania’s Attorney General.
After graduating from University of Tasmania Law School, Vanessa did a degree in criminology at Cambridge University, and later a PhD in Hobart. She became interested in the family life of prisoners. I imagine she was the only Attorney General in the world who ran “Kids’ Days” at the prison.
This week the government of Tasmania announced that a new facility at Risdon would be built for women prisoners to help them bond with their babies. It will have five bedrooms for mothers with children up to two years of age.
The facility will be named after Vanessa Goodwin. As reported by ABC News, Vanessa’s cousin Maggie Saunders said:
“I’m incredibly proud and I think that’s a bit of an understatement… She’s an incredible force in our family and it’s something we can look back on in her memory. It’s very important to us.”
Ms Saunders said the family had been inundated with well wishes from people touched by Dr Goodwin and her work.
“We’ve heard from rehabilitated prisoners, we’ve heard from random people on the streets … I don’t think there’s a single person in Tasmania who didn’t like Vanessa and didn’t appreciate what she did for the entire state,” Ms Saunders said.
The premier of Tasmania, Will Hodgman, was born two days earlier than Vanessa in April 1969, and their respective parents were best friends. So, too, Will and Vanessa were good friends in schooldays and at Parliament.
A year ago, on March 24, 2017, Vanessa became ill at work and was rushed to the Royal Hobart Hospital where she was diagnosed as having multiple brain tumors. Her mother had died of a brain tumor in 2016. Seven months after Vanessa got her diagnosis, she left her job as Liberal member for Pembroke. Thus there was a by-election, won by Labor.
Gumshoe’s Gratitude to Dr Goodwin
Vanessa helped us on the Martin Bryant case. In 2016 Cherri Bonney went to Tassie to deliver to the premier her packet of signatures from the Change.org petition that she had organized. That campaign asked the premier to hold an Inquest “for Martin Bryant’s sake and all our sakes. ”Cherri is ex-Tasmania herself. Eventually the petition garnered 3200 sigs.
One result of Ms Bonney’s trip was that we received from Vanessa Goodwin a portion of the 1997 Port Arthur Seminar Papers and an explanation of the fact that the state coroner, Ian Matterson, had started an Inquest within hours of the April 28, 1996 massacre. He later had to throw it in when a person was convicted of that crime. This was to comply with a 1957 law. The newer Tasmanian legislation did not kick in till 1997.
Cherri tells us that she also ran a second petition. The earlier one had expired according to the rules. But the new one has been removed from Change.org without her permission. Perhaps it was “something she said”?
Attorney General Goodwin helped me, too. In 2016 I wrote a joint letter to 18 officials asking for protection for Prisoner Bryant. The notion of Bryant being in trouble had come from the way he is slandered by both the Murdoch press and the ABC. At times we seem to hear calls for his death.
I got only one reply and it was from Vanessa.
Vale, Ms Goodwin. You made your mark. I wish I had met you to say Thank you for caring. I say it now — thank you for living.
May many Aussie law students choose you as their model!
— Mary W Maxwell and Dee McLachlan, editor of GumshoeNews, are the authors of the 2016 book Port Arthur: Enough Is Enough
Are there any honest / honourable people in top positions ?
No, to have a truthful individual at the top would mean the end of the world as we having been led to believe, meaning to dismantle the military empire of the first world and have one military organization representing the world countries whom all pay for this one military representation would save trillions of dollars rather than segmented armies who make money for finance corporations, rather than the cost being born by taxpayers who in the main not only become financial victims but also victims of war.
Interesting question, all I hear is a deafening silence…
That photo in the church is beautiful, although it would be a lot more beautiful if it didn’t have in it the coffin of a 48-year-old excellent human being. Hey, she had maybe 40 more years to go!
only the good die young…she must have been very good…
See if this kills ya:
.
This from an article in global research:
Question – Can you give a person cancer – yes. “After nearly 80 years of research and development there is now a way to simulate a real heart attack and to give a healthy person cancer. Both have been used as a means of assassination. Only a very skilled pathologist, who knew exactly what to look for at an autopsy, could distinguish an assassination induced heart attack or cancer from the real thing.”
“In 1931, Cornelius Rhoads, a pathologist from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, purposely infects human test subjects in Puerto Rico with cancer cells; 13 of them died. Though a Puerto Rican doctor later discovers that Rhoads purposely covered up some of the details of his experiment and Rhoads himself gives a written testimony stating he believes that all Puerto Ricans should be killed, he later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Fort Detrick Maryland ”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/cia-targeted-assassinations-by-induced-heart-attack-and-cancer/5326382
Dee, I know I shouldn’t say this but it’s almost a good thing that “Doctor” Rhoads said he thought it was fine to give diseases to people. At least when someone says that, you know where you stand.
By contrast, most of the guys who are busy killing us today will look at you all sweetness and light.
Such people also run the big charitable and human-rightsie-type organizations, I think.
Please everybody, don’t collapse where they want you to collapse — “cuz it’s all too confusing.” Go back to the old, steady ways.
Vanessa Goodwin stuck by her principles (and by her empathy). That’s proof that it can be done. Actually it can be done across the board. Don’t be taken in by the current “fad.”
Bryant was the killer.
You OK with the coerced Guilty Plea then? You OK with Malcolm Hughes’ compilation of amazing facts?
.
https://gumshoenews.com/2018/04/28/getting-ready-for-the-port-arthur-massacre/
Excuse me!
Before you ‘mouth’ your comments, make sure you have the REAL facts first Hmm….
NOW, seen your well versed on all this, go tell WENDY SCURR and CARLEEN BRYANT what you just said! I’ll let them know your calling….
Good Luck!!
Oh, and while you’re on the phone with Carleen, Shrieking Ninja, please tell her there was a mahty purdy picture of here a couple of weeks ago:
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https://gumshoenews.com/2018/04/21/port-arthur-and-the-beauty-of-truth/
Cherri, my Grandpappy had some advice about this kind of interaction. – “Don’t get in a battle of wits, unless you know your opponent is armed”. – Good advice…
Thanks Terry, very true! one can easily get carried away with people like this 🙂
A mere two weeks ago Shriek drew attention to the fact that Bryant wasn’t identified by any Broadarrow eyewitnesses as being IT :
https://gumshoenews.com/2018/04/29/an-open-letter-to-dr-paul-mullen-regarding-martin-bryant/
so it appears that the comment isn’t supposed to be taken seriously.
Notwithstanding you’d have to be pretty bent to make light of such an event
Unfortunately Shreeeiking Wombat, you should go off do and do some Ninja investigation. As soon as you scratch the surface of the ACTUAL EVIDENCE (which has mostly not been presented) you’ll be sure to dig up someone else’s DNA on the Solo can and the tray in the Broad Arrow Cafe. Sniff around for awhile before you declare a verdict. By the way in your past comments – you said eye witnesses identified Bryant. Well you’ve just been buzzed out. Jim Laycock — reliable witness — disagrees. Read his statement before you surface back to Port Arthur — shrieking.
Cherri, it is possible, quite possible, that Vanessa Goodwin was affected by your song “Wish I Knew How To be Free”. In fact she may have applied it, in her mind, to many prisoners not just Martin.
I see that there are two editions of it on Youtube, one with 2.4k views and t’other with 800, so grand total 3200 — same as your petition signatures. Goodonya.
Yes, it’s great the plays are rising with my song, on You Tube, and the figure 3200, it’s marvellous. Goes to show people DO care for poor Martin, 22 years is a long time without a trial.
I’m sure Vanessa spoke to many prisoners trying to reassure them, their freedom, this would be her style.
When I arrived at her office that day, 2 other MP’s were there while Vanessa was in court that morning. However, the 2 guys were chatting and interested with the gift for Vanessa (my song CD and the pack of petitions, plus the book Mary had written, Enough is Enough ) and told me I will put them all on her desk in a bag. Vanessa did know I was arriving but of course couldn’t make it.
The 2 MP’s realized this must be important to have me all the way from Perth to deliver the gifts, I told them briefly about the cause, they weren’t intolerant, but friendly, intrigued, then I was on my way, taking some memory pic’s outside her office before the departure to Perth.
There’s no doubt in my mind Martin had affected Vanessa, as she’s only human like all of us, the only part she may have found harder to ‘swallow’ was all the politics around this time ( obviously it wasn’t her time frame) she would have read a lot from the books given to her this day, I’m sure!
My song can mean many things at any given time, music does this to the soul, doesn’t necessarily have to be about Martin. In the case of Vanessa’s poorly condition, my song may have? set her mind free of pain and the knowing of Martins deplorable incarceration.
Only Vanessa will carry this secret…..RIP
Cherri
Crikey, I just picked up a few more bits from a March 9, 2018 article at news.com.au
EMOTIONAL farewells at the state funeral for Vanessa Goodwin have paid tribute to a woman of extraordinary intelligence, warmth and deep compassion. About a thousand people gathered for the funeral . Premier Will Hodgman said “Like everyone here today, I am heartbroken.” Close friend Bridget Rheinberger remembered Dr Goodwin: “She tackled life with a calm determination”.
“There were messages from former inmates at Risdon prison … and attendees at mardi gras were wearing black armbands in her honour”. The Very Reverend Richard Humphries, who led the service at St David’s Cathedral, said it was testament to Dr Goodwin’s character that she could be the state’s chief lawmaker while also a favourite among inmates at Risdon prison. [I’ll say!]
“The prison chaplain said that a number of inmates wanted to be here today,” said Rev Humphries. “If you have managed to get out I don’t want you to identify yourself…” he quipped. “But if you got this far, well done … it is well worth coming to give thanks to someone who has championed your cause”. “She was a great woman.”
Mr Hodgman said he and Dr Goodwin had a shared understanding of being the children of Liberal Party figures, and had formed a support group for “children of over-the-top parents”. The parents had a great love of life, the Liberal Party, horse racing, raucus partying and outrageous antics.”
When Vanessa returned from England, she worked in the Police Department for 12 years. “But she took it all in her stride with composure and skill.” He said she struck up relationships with peers on all sides of politics. “We were bemused with the close connections she struck with the other team.”
Mr Hodgman said he noticed Vanessa was quiet in a cabinet meeting early last year, and he knew “something was wrong … and we soon learnt that Vanessa was seriously ill…It stopped our Parliament in its tracks, it stunned our community, it shook us to our core.”
Deputy premier Jeremy Rockliff and legislative council president Jim Wilkinson were among the six pallbearers. Members of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performed a musical item “Convict Monologues”, chosen because it follows a TSO outreach program at Risdon Prison. Girls from Dr Goodwin’s old school, St Michael’s Collegiate, formed the choir.
Another gun amnesty in NSW, so that’s a good thing.