Australian politics

Last week’s Labor leadership change has thrown light on some of the key behavioural biases at play in decision-making.

I was recently phoned by a journalist and asked to reflect on what the Labor government had done for gender equality.

Recently, debates about policies have disappeared under an avalanche of sexist, misogynist nonsense and the commentary on it.

On June 24, 2010, Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was sworn into office by Australia’s first female governor-general, Quentin Bryce.

Kevin Rudd has completed one the great political comebacks in Australian history by reclaiming the prime ministership from Julia Gillard in a party room vote in Canberra tonight, 57 votes to 45.

Nicola Roxon’s valedictorian speech to parliament on Tuesday got me thinking about success and how our definition of success can and should shift according to our changing circumstances.

Labor may have “ditched the witch”, but does the ejection of Julia Gillard from her seat of power close the book on the debate about sexism that she championed and the role of women in leadership? Our first female prime minister is gone, but the feminist challenges she raised, and the battles she fought, are far from forgotten.

Accounts in the media over the past week explain, or rather rationalise, the downfall of our first female Prime Minister.

When we discuss gender in politics we focus a lot on women.

Julie Bishop is Australia’s 38th Foreign Minister of Australia and the first female to be appointed to the position.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has picked just one woman for his 19-member cabinet, to be sworn in tomorrow.

If you think David Cameron has a ‘woman’s problem’, meet Tony Abbott: the new Australian PM who, among other things, said people should vote for him because he has “not bad looking” daughters.