It feels like a long time ago now, thanks in part to a rather eventful week in politics, but it’s only been eight days since the Queensland election. On the evening of the vote that unseated Campbell Newman I tuned into Sky News and immediately noticed something that many others, both before and after me, also pointed out.
The panel was made up of six men: David Speers, Peter van Onselen, George Brandis, Craig Emerson, Michael Kroger and Graham Richardson. That each of them are very experienced political commentators and players, meritorious if you will, is not in question. They are but so too are many women.
Wanting balance in representation – whether it’s on television, in parliament or around a board table –is not simply worthwhile for the sake of appearances. It’s about wanting representation that reflects the population. Women comprise half the electorate, so why wouldn’t their views be worth having at the table?
Australia’s excess of talented political journalists has been impossible to ignore over the past week given the political tumult. Over the weekend it dawned on me just how many of them are women. Samantha Maiden, Laura Tingle, Annabel Crabb, Leigh Sales, Sabra Lane, Patricia Karvelas, Latika Bourke, Katherine Murphy, Michelle Grattan, Paula Matthewson, Stephanie Peatling, Lenore Taylor, Eliza Borrello, Ashleigh Gillon, Sarah Whyte, Judith Ireland & Laura Jayes are among Australia’s most respected political reporters at the moment. In a variety of mediums, these women have been front and centre in covering the events of the past week.
It’s not to discount or dismiss their male counterparts. There is no point diminishing the positions occupied so ably by Philip Coorey, David Crowe, David Speers, Chris Uhlmann, Bernard Keane, Mark Kenny, Paul Kelly, Peter Hartcher or Peter van Onselen to name a few.
But the fact that so many accomplished women rank alongside their male peers is worth celebrating. Because in so many spheres Australian women still don’t come close to comprising even half the number of senior positions. Think parliament, law firms, ASX-listed companies, Cabinet, universities – in the upper echelons women fight for a substantive presence.
In recent weeks Women’s Agenda has reported that Bloomberg and UNICEF are specifically tackling the underrepresentation of women in the media. As both organisations have pointed out, it’s not just a matter of elevating the number of women in senior roles or the number of women sources in stories for the sake of it. It’s about recognising the authority and power that the media bestows upon people and evening up that ledger.
So even if there is little else to celebrate in the uncertainty of Australian politics right now, the fact we are so spoiled for choice when it comes to female voices reporting and analysing events is worth celebrating.