Bernice Eu
Member of the South Australian Legislative Council
In office
23 October 1990 – 10 October 1997
Preceded byMartin Cameron
Personal details
Born
Eu Swee Lian 余瑞蓮[1]

(1938-05-02) 2 May 1938
Singapore
Political partyLiberal
RelationsPhyllis Eu Cheng Li (mother)
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
ProfessionMedical practitioner

Bernice Eu (born Eu Swee Lian, previously Pfitzner; 2 May 1938) is a former Australian doctor and politician. She was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1990 to 1997, representing the Liberal Party.

Early life

Eu was born in Singapore. Her mother Phyllis Eu Cheng Li was a school principal who became the first woman elected to the Singapore City Council.[2] Her maternal grandfather Chia Yee Soh was a wealthy businessman who founded United Motor Works.[3]

Eu and her family were evacuated to Australia following the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1941. The family returned to Singapore after the end of the war where she attended Methodist Girls' School. In 1963 she moved back to Australia to study medicine at the University of Adelaide. She subsequently worked as a general practitioner.[3]

Politics

Eu was the Liberal Party candidate in the safe Labor seat of Price at the 1989 state election.[4] She used her married name "Bernice Pfitzner" during her political career.[5]

Eu was appointed to the South Australian Legislative Council on 23 October 1990, filling a casual vacancy.[6] She served as chair of the Social Development Committee and led an inquiry into rural poverty.[7] She was defeated in her bid for election to a full term at the 1997 state election.[5]

At the 1998 federal election, Eu stood for the Senate as an independent, heading a three-person ticket under the slogan "Say No To Intolerance". The group aimed to "counterbalance those parties it perceives as intolerant and racist, including Pauline Hanson's One Nation and Australia First".[8]

Personal life

In 2022 Eu published a memoir titled Vulnerable but Invicible: Memoirs of a Singapore Doctor in Australia.[9]

Relationship with Oday Al Tekriti

After leaving politics, Eu worked as a doctor at the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. In 2003, she remarried to Oday Adnan Al Tekriti, a former bodyguard of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.[10]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.sbs.com.au/language/chinese/zh-hant/article/celebrities-born-in-the-years-of-the-tiger/rym34fr2l
  2. ↑ "Bernice Pfitzner interviewed by Diana Giese for the Post-war Chinese Australians oral history project [sound recording]". The Australian Women's Register. 20 September 1996. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  3. 1 2 Sit Yin Fong (26 January 1994). "Like daughter". The New Paper. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  4. ↑ Newton-Farrelly, Jenni (6 September 2006). "Legislative Council Casual Vacancies in South Australia" (PDF). Parliamentary Library of South Australia. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Dr Bernice Pfitzner". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  6. ↑ "Pfitzner, Bernice". Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  7. ↑ "Rural families show strain of hardship". Port Lincoln Times. 10 May 1994.
  8. ↑ "Message of tolerance". Port Lincoln Times. 24 September 1998.
  9. ↑ "Vulnerable but invincible : memoirs of a Singapore doctor in Australia / Bernice Eu". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  10. ↑ "I married for love: Al Tekriti's wife". 7 December 2005. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
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