Like many Australian women, Nicola Quin has become disillusioned with the number of women in parliament, both at the Federal level and in her home state of Victoria where women hold just 30% of parliamentary positions.
But upon realising there was little hope for much change in female representation following the upcoming Victorian state election – with both the Victorian ALP failing to meet its own party quota for preselecting women to safe seats and Liberal MP Mary Wooldridge losing her seat during an electoral redistribution — Quin decided she needed to personally step up.
She launched Women for Change, what she hopes to become a registered political party in Victoria once she secures 500 members. It’s a centrist party she says will allow Victorians to vote for ‘centrist ideology’ and to hold the parties to account on the number of women they pre-select to winnable seats.
“It came through from the personal recognition that there was no incentive for the major parties to change,” Quin told Women’s Agenda. “I don’t think that as a society we’re holding them to account on [the representation of women] … In my dream, if we’re able to get this party up, then it would become an accountability mechanism.”
With leadership and management experience in the government and NFP sectors, especially in undertaking policy and program development and implementation, Quin believes she is well placed to lead the new party. She says she’s long admired women in politics and as a teenager and university student in the 1980s and 90s, simply believed a 50/50 split of women and men in elected positions would become the norm.
Quin had 250 signatures as of lunchtime on Thursday, by working with family and friends and pushing the initiative on Facebook. Of those, 22 have expressed an interest in running for Parliament – something she says proves that women are keen to get involved in politics.
The party’s early manifesto is relatively brief, but to the point – putting a priority on ensuring women’s voices are heard in parliament – and supporting a platform for a ‘strong, fiscally sound’ Victorian economy which includes an investment in infrastructure, schools, affordable healthcare and the responsible protection and conservation of the environment.
“My idea is for the major parties to understand that there’s an expectation that they’re pre-selecting women,” says Quin. “The ALP is doing better than the Liberal party on this, they do have a quota system, but this time when they didn’t meet their own quota system it didn’t seem to bother them.”
Quin is hoping to secure the remaining Victorian-based party members in the coming week in order to allow enough time for the six-week registration process with the Electoral Commission, and to start campaigning for the Victorian state election on November 27.
If time runs out, she says she’ll give people the option to remain members in order to take it to the next national election.