Yesterday Senator Sue Boyce gave her valedictory speech in the Senate. She is only the fourth female senator from Queensland to come from either the Liberal party or the National party, and her retirement means from June 30 there will be no female Senators from the LNP. This is an extract of the frank and compassionate speech she gave last night. Full speech is here.
On the underrepresentation of women in the LNP
“There is only, as we know, one woman in the Abbott government: the wonderful Minister Julie Bishop. There are only four LNP women in the House of Representatives, and two of them are over here today —thank you for being here. Once I leave on 30 June there will be no LNP women in the Senate. So I figure I have failed. But so, I think, has our party at both the state and the federal level. It is obvious that if we want more women in cabinet we need more women in parliament. The current 22 per cent figure is just not good enough. Improving this pathetic figure must be the job of every party member and every party employee.”
On being a moderate and a feminist in the LNP
“In the past few months I have been asked numerous times if, as a moderate and a feminist, I am concerned about our party’s perceived move to the right. Yes, I am concerned—but I am also hopeful. I am hopeful that debates about important issues such as same-sex marriage and responses to climate change will continue to be conducted robustly, but respectfully, within our party. I also expect that pragmatism will ultimately triumph. Australians will continue to elect governments of the centre right—and, hopefully less often, of the centre left—so any general move too far to the right would make us unelectable.”
Advice
Recently I came across a letter from the former Howard government minister and Senator John Herron AO, congratulating me on being preselected to the 2004 Senate ticket. He ends the letter by saying: I wish you well in your political career. It is worth pursuing and the only advice I can give you is that you should enjoy every moment of it. It will be exhilarating, frustrating and exhausting but well worthwhile. He was absolutely right.
On winning preselection over 9 male candidates
“I am an accidental politician. When I stood in 2004 and was preselected to the ‘unwinnable’ fourth spot on the Senate ticket, I was president of the Liberal Women’s Council. I perceived my role as a flag-bearer for women of the Queensland Liberal Party. I thought I was mentoring other, younger women to have the opportunity to be Queensland Liberal senators in the medium-term future—certainly not before 2010 or 2013. But when then Senator Santo Santoro resigned suddenly, I was put in the position of putting up or shutting up—and I decided to put up. I won a long preselection from nine other candidates, all male”
On party solidarity and crossing the floor
“Party solidarity is an interesting beast. I really do not have much time for those MPs on all sides who support the party—read ‘leader’s’—line no matter what in the hope of a promotion. I have the utmost respect for those who thoughtfully put their own views in the party room and shut up outside the party room. I have been one of those on most occasions. I have occasionally been one of those who speaks and acts outside the party room when I cannot in good conscience support it. I have crossed the floor only three times, although it does seem like more. I crossed once on the CPRS emissions trading scheme along with former Senator— and someone I regard as a mentor—Judith Troeth and crossed the floor twice on marriage equality bills. I was not prepared for how I felt when it came to actually physically crossing the floor. It is lonely; and, no matter how strong your conviction in the correctness of your stance, there is a small part of you that feels disloyal to your colleagues, to your party and to the fragile fabric that unites us.”
On retiring from the Senate
“When I have been asked why I did not stand for a second term, I have responded in terms of my age: ‘I’ll be 69 in another six years and I want to spend time with my family.’ Both are absolutely true. But my decision not to renominate in November 2012 was greatly influenced by being diagnosed, in July 2012,
with emphysema. It is absolutely true that I want to spend more time with my family, but I want to do it now whilst I am still an active and relatively fit mother and grandmother and not wait till I am ‘granny with the oxygen cyclinder’. And for those here, who, out of a sense of caring, have nagged me ceaselessly and futilely about smoking: you are absolutely right. I know all the dangers and the stupidity of smoking. I recently fell off the non-smoking wagon after 11 months, but I will jump back on it just as soon as I get away from the stress of all that nagging!”
On future plans
“I will be working on access to justice issues for people with a cognitive impairment, both perpetrators and victims; on the oft-ignored issue of the extraordinary level of violence experienced by women with a disability; and on further raising the profile of family business, including agribusiness, and strengthening their voice, our voice, my voice to policymakers. Women’s representation in politics and women’s financial literacy continue to be very important to me and I am planning some practical measures—I hope— to assist with both.
I am intending to continue the three annual postsecondary scholarships that I have developed— one for an Aboriginal woman, one for a Torres Strait Islander woman and one for a woman with a disability.”
On her family
“Most importantly, I will be spending time with my family, my children Bede, Gina and Joanna and their families, who really do know just how exhausting and frustrating I have sometimes found my political career but also how exhilarating and satisfying I have found it.
I am the proud grandmother of three extraordinarily beautiful and clever little girls, with another equally beautiful and clever grandchild expected in August. Recently, Joanna said to me, ‘I can’t wait till you retire, Mum, and we can do fun things.’ It has been a frustrating, exhausting, exhilarating, satisfying seven years. But I also cannot wait, Jo, until we can do fun things. “