Page 1285 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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welcomed from the ANU internship program since I was elected. As will come as no surprise, this time was a most unusual experience.
Miriam started in late February. By the time the Assembly next had a sitting day, we were sitting on Thursday only and otherwise all working from home. So, regrettably, Miriam has had a much more pared-back internship than we would otherwise have loved to give her. But that is not to say that Miriam herself has not made the most of it.
This week Miriam handed in a comprehensive essay on women in politics titled “Do women best represent women?” Given that Mrs Jones was interviewed for it, I thought she would interested in knowing all about it.
Fittingly, Miriam’s case study was on the first majority female parliament in Australia: of course, our very own. Miriam conducted a literature review of barriers to women entering politics and staying in politics, as well as the theories of critical mass—that women are more likely to make a substantive difference once there is a 30 per cent representation in parliament—and the politics of presence: that it is the individual and their passions and experiences that gets issues on the agenda. Whatever theory you subscribe to, this quote sums it up neatly: “Even though women politicians advocate for more than just women’s issues, and are not elected for this sole purpose, they are still women’s primary representatives.”
Miriam’s case study investigated what led to a female majority parliament being achieved in the ACT, as well as what specific measures women members have championed in removing barriers to women’s participation, including in the chamber itself, and the actions women have taken to propose and support legislation that specifically benefits women.
My thanks go especially to Minister Berry, Mrs Dunne, Mrs Jones and the Clerk for their generosity in making the time to be interviewed and being so candid in doing so, as well as to former member Annette Ellis for providing plenty of background. Madam Speaker, your own paper that you published in 2018 was drawn from heavily.
The essay’s strength lies in the collective experiences of members in this place being shared and recorded. I commend Miriam for having done so in a very meaningful way. I do not think it will surprise many people here that Miriam found that women in the ACT parliament have made a genuine difference in political participation in parliament and in matters that affect women, like safety and support, and that women in this parliament have done so as individual actors as well as as a result of having an increasing number of women represented in each term, at least in our more modern history. However, it is women who are willing to use their position to act for women who make the greatest difference to policy outcomes.
There is more to do in terms of leadership positions, such as the make-up of cabinet, and in terms of culture. But that does not take away from how much has been achieved in the parliament.
Miriam’s essay concludes by recommending that more women being elected will help to address women’s disadvantage overall in society. Our own example here in the
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