Blink and you might miss the women in Australia’s next Parliament.
That’s because at a time when women are stepping into some of the world’s most powerful leadership positions overseas, Australia is going backwards when it comes to women’s representation in parliament.
It’s been happening for a number of years now, seeing us ranked behind countries like Afghanistan and Rwanda according to International Parliamentary Union data. But the 2016 Federal Election has cemented our pathetic record.
On current projections, just 43 women look set to make up Australia’s 150-member House of Representatives. The problem is that the majority of those are in the Opposition party.
The number of women who’ll actually form government is just 13, with the Liberal and National parties only able to manage that number between them, across their current 76 seats. That’s five less than the Abbott Government had in 2013.
Now consider how difficult Abbott found it appointing women to fill his front-bench, he could originally only find one. Turnbull will hopefully try harder.
The Labor party, which has had a gender quota for female MPs since 1994, looks set to have 27 or 28 women among its 68 or 69 seats, that’s over 40%. It’s a dramatic difference and as Dr Victor Sojo and Dr Melissa Wheeler from the Centre for Ethical Leadership outline in Pursuit this week, highlights the fact Labor’s effort to even up the gender split appears to be working.
Independent Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie from the Nick Xenophon Team further boost the numbers in the House of Reps from the crossbench.
Merit often comes up as an argument against quotas, that people just want the “right person for the job” rather than somebody put there because of their gender.
But then in politics particularly, and on a front bench that has been heavily dominated by men since Tony Abbott formed government in 2013, it’s difficult to see how ‘merit’ has greatly improved the quality of our politicians, as well as public opinions regarding how they’re performing. There’s nothing ‘meritocratic’ about a system where success essentially relies on your personal and professional connections.
Party preselections run the risk of becoming more about ‘who you know’ than what you can actually do. As retired Liberal MP Sharon Stone said last year: “You’ve got to be in the right place at the right time, laugh loudly at the leader’s jokes, and work hard for your faction.’
At the ALP’s last national conference the party unanimously agreed to increase its 40% female requirement to 50% by 2025. The party wouldn’t do this if it thought it would be disadvantaged by such decisions — or end up with women taking seats over more ‘merit worthy’ men — and risk losing further future elections
So expect to see women strategically placed to be visible during press conferences and Question Time in Parliament. But don’t for a second think we’re anything close to being equally represented or have much of a say on the legislation affecting our lives.