Irina Dunn

For other people with the same name, see Pat Dunn (disambiguation).

Irina Dunn
Senator for New South Wales
In office
21 July 1988 – 30 June 1990
Preceded byRobert Wood
Personal details
Born (1948-03-17) 17 March 1948 (age 76)
Shanghai, China
Political partyNDP (1988)
Independent (1988–90)
Alma materUniversity of Sydney

Irina Patsi Dunn (born 17 March 1948)[1] 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.

  1. ^ Black, David (1996). Women Parliamentarians in Australia 1921–1996: A Register of Women Members of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Parliaments in Australia. Perth: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project. ISBN 0-7309-7616-5.