The women on Bill Shorten's front bench: On the Agenda today - Women's Agenda

The women on Bill Shorten’s front bench: On the Agenda today

Every morning we answer the key questions on the daily agenda in our morning email update. 

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Below are some of the key questions we answered today

How many women in the Opposition’s core team?

A decent number. Opposition leader Bill Shorten has announced his new front bench, boasting 13 women and 19 men, as well as another seven female assistant shadow ministers.

There are a number of fresh faces included, along with a reshuffle of responsibilities at the very top

Linda Burney, our first Indigenous woman in the House of Reps and a former deputy NSW leader, joins the team with the human services portfolio.

Victorian MP Clare O’Neil also enters the front bench, in the justice portfolio. She’s a Harvard University graduate who once served as our youngest ever female mayor. Meanwhile, Tasmanian Carol Brown takes on responsibility for disability and carers.

Tanya Plibersek will take on the education portfolio and become Labor’s Minister for Women, with Senate Leader Penny Wong taking Plibersek’s former foreign affairs role.

Catherine King stays in Health, while Jenny Macklin retains family services, Kate Ellis is in early childhood education, Julie Collins in ageing and mental health, Katy Gallagher in small business and financial services, Claire Moore in international development and Pacific, Amanda Rishworth in veterans affairs, and Michelle Rowland in communications.

A number of women also take on seven of the 16 assistant shadow minister roles, including Terri Butler, Gai Brodtmann, Lisa Chesters, Jacinta Collins, Julie Owens, Helen Polley, and Louise Pratt 

That makes a total of 20 women across the full team of 48, with eight women in Shorten’s shadow Cabinet 

The Turnbull government has six women in Cabinet, and 10 across the full front bench.        

Will Russia compete in the Olympics?

Looks like it. The IOC has released a statement saying it will not ban the entire team from competing at the Olympics in August, but that it will be up to the governing bodies of individual sports to determine if Russian athletes are clean and permitted to take part.

That means any Russian athletes looking to participate will need to meet a number of strict requirements put forward by the IOC, and assessed by individual sporting bodies. It’s a bit of a mess: giving such sporting bodies less than 12 days to determine their analysis of the anti-doping records of Russian competitors.

Meanwhile, the whistleblower Yulia Stepanova who helped expose the extent of Russian doping, will not be allowed to compete at the games as a neutral athlete, as she’s previously failed a doping test and does not therefore meet the IOC’s requirements.             

What happened to the CEO who took a $1 million pay cut?

He just received a pretty special gift.

Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, took a massive pay cut last year so he could lift his company’s minimum wage.

The story went everywhere, with plenty of discussions about the CEO’s generosity and the need for company perks that go beyond pool tables and playstations.

Now the employees have done something for their boss — the team of 130 have bought him a Tesla.

He’s “still in disbelief”, he wrote on his Facebook page. It’s shiny and it’s blue.

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