In Victoria early leaders were Henrietta Dugdale, Annie Lowe, Jessie Ackermann, Annette Bear-Crawford, Vida Goldstein, Dr William Maloney and Champions who believed 'that government of the People, by the People and for the People should mean all the People, not half'.

Bessie M. Rischbieth of Western Australia was the first women to be part of an Australian delegation to the League of Nations before World War Two. She brought a range of suffragist groups together to form the Australian Federation of Women Voters.
The Bessie M. Rischbieth Trust was established in the 1980s by the LWVV in memory of this remarkable woman.

The League began in order to run training programs for women candidates for public office, parliament and local council, and to campaign for the right of women to serve on juries, for equal pay and many other issues.

NOW we continue this work through workshops, seminars, and submissions. Like the Fawcett Society in the UK and the many League of Women Voters chapters in the USA we aim to run active, non-partisan programs of elector information.

In Australia similar work is done by WEL and Democratic Audit. Our recent seminars have included discussion of e-democracy and the impact of whole of municipality voting with Proportional Respresentation on the prospects of Independent Candidates.

WE hold an annual event to recall women finally gaining the vote in State elections (1908-9) and the right of women to stand for Parliament (1924).

BESSIE Rischbieth Memorial Trust events bring young women to Parliament for events such as a Young Women's Leadership Day