LISA VISENTIN:
Lisa Visentin
A group of federal MPs from across the political divide are collaborating to bolster the ranks of women in public office and set a fresh drive to train and mentor women for political careers in all tiers of government.
Federal Labor MP Sally Sitou, a co-chair of the cross-party group to be launched in Parliament House on Thursday, said the immediate goal was to mentor and support staffers working in the building to take on leadership roles or consider running for office.
“The key purpose is to show that we ought to see more women in parliament across the spectrum,” Sitou said. “There are some fantastic women who are working as staffers. We want them to see a role for themselves at local, state or federal government as well.”
The group, the Parliamentary Friends Group of Women for Election, will be co-chaired by Liberal MP Bridget Archer and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
It will support the broader work of the Women for Election (WFE) organisation.
Sitou said it was important to show women there was a pathway into public office, but there were other avenues for a political career. “If you see yourself becoming a chief-of-staff to a minister, heading up a think tank or an advocacy group, or being part of a union but showing in a leadership role, we want to encourage that,” she said.
WFE chief executive Julia Rose said the parliamentary group would also act as a non-partisan forum to build solidarity among female MPs and would host events between now and the next federal election centred on lifting the numbers and status of women in public office.
In a separate push, former NSW attorney-general Gabrielle Upton has proposed Australia adopt to the example of Britain’s and Canada’s parliaments and embed formalised cross-party women’s committees in parliamentary structures.
“Not only would it be good for the women of the parliament, where you could have issues discussed more formally about the environment of the parliament, instead of it being episodic when an issue arises, but it could be a great forum to canvass issues affecting women across the community,” said Upton, the state’s first female attorney-general between 2015 and 2017.
Her proposal is informed by a recent study tour of parliaments and women’s political organisations in Britain, Canada and the US. It draws on the example of Britain’s Women and Equalities Select Committee and Canada’s Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
Upton, who retired from politics in March, said while there was now a concerted focus on driving up the number of women in parliaments, there was a lack of support for them once they had been elected.
Reflecting on her 12-year career as a Liberal MP, Upton said women would achieve “earlier and faster” if they had access to a clear induction course delivered with a “gendered lens” at the start of their political career. She said it should prepare them for the combativeness of the parliament and provide education training for media appearances and ways to deal with the social media abuse disproportionately endured by female MPs.