Dorothy Catherine JelicichQSO (née MacDonald, 19 January 1928 – 10 April 2015) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. She served one term in the House of Representatives representing the Hamilton West electorate, and was afterwards a city councillor in Hamilton and then Manukau.
Jelicich was born in Sydney on 19 January 1928.[1] Her father was a semi-skilled labourer.[2] She was educated at Epsom Girls' Grammar School and the Elam School of Fine Arts.[citation needed] In 1949 she married Paul Jelicich, a bricklayer,[1] and, with family support, she opened a restaurant in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe.[2] Purchasing a small dairy farm at Bombay in 1964, the couple took up farming, but in 1970 she became a shoe store manager and then a trade union organiser.[2]
Jelicich, through her union job, became a member of the Labour Party and became a member of the executive of the Manurewa electorate and president of the Papatoetoe electorate committee. She stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for Haurakiin1969.[3]In1972 she won the seat of Hamilton West for Labour by defeating Hamilton City Councillor Derek Heather after the incumbent, Leslie Munro of the National Party, retired.[4] She became the first woman in New Zealand parliamentary history to open the Address-in-Reply debate.[5]In1975 she lost her seat to Mike Minogue.[4]
Following her defeat she stood for the vice-presidency of the Labour Party at the 1976 party conference. She lost to Gerald O'Brien, placing second in the delegate ballot with a credible 344 votes to O'Brien's 585.[6] In early 1977 she stood as a candidate for the Labour Party nomination in the Māngere by-election. She had the backing of both the outgoing MP Colin Moyle, Labour leader Bill Rowling, but regardless she lost out to future Prime Minister David Lange.[7] She contested the Hamilton West electorate once more in the 1978 election.[8]
She briefly served on the Hamilton City Council after winning a by-election in 1979.[9] She unsuccessfully stood for the Labour nomination at the 1980 Onehunga by-election. Just as in Mangere she gathered much support among local members but again missed out, narrowly losing to Fred Gerbic.[10][11] In 1982 (via another by-election) she became a Manukau City Councillor, representing Mangere Ward until she retired in 1995.[12]
Jelicich died on 10 April 2015 at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland at the age of 87, having been predeceased by her husband in October the previous year.[15] She was survived by their three children.[16]
^ ab"Jelicich, Dorothy". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Thomson Gale. 1 January 2007. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
^"16 now chase Labour nod for Mangere". Auckland Star. 15 February 1977. p. 48.
^Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN0-475-11200-8.
