ANNUAL REPORT 2007– 2008

(delivered 11 November 2008)

• Background to the Year
• Submissions and Issues
• Numbers: Women in Parliaments and on Boards
• Committee

Background to the Year

The federal election in November 2007 brought a change of government to Australia. The Liberal/National Coalition had been in power for over 12 years. The new Labor government, led by the energetic Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, offered hope that some issues for women that had been ignored previously might now be dealt with, especially as a woman, The Hon Julia Gillard, became the Deputy Prime Minister. After a year in office, the new government has proved at best slow in dealing with such matters as removing offensive restrictions from the AusAID Family Planning Guidelines, electoral donations reform, a human rights charter, secrecy in government, freedom of information issues and paid maternity leave. There is a sense of disappointment that the corporate world still has the ready ear of this new government while non-government organizations and women do not. Any influence of rank and file women MPs on government priorities is not obvious to us in the community.

The NSW Labor Premier Morris Iemma resigned and was replaced by Premier Nathan Lees in early September 2008, with The Hon Carmel Tebbutt as his deputy. A cleanout of senior ministers at the same time gave hope for a more functional government, but the culture of the government has shown no signs of improvement. Premier Lees declared that he would clean up political donations, for example, but small changes that were made have brought no discernible difference and the issue has been shelved. The same power brokers seem to be in charge in the state of NSW.

Of the 300 persons who received Queen’s Birthday Honours in June, 255 were men and 45 were women. Perhaps we must accept that Australian women tend to be practical, and that it is not part of their culture to do the research and extensive submissions to permit friends and colleagues to receive these honours.

Women Into Politics was delighted to learn of the appointment of Ms Quentin Bryce as the first female Governor-General of Australia. Although the Prime Minister’s choice on this occasion was admirable, Women Into Politics had supported a letter from some women’s groups proposing a more open process for the selection of a Governor-General, with the opportunity for nominations from the community.

top of page

Submissions and Issues

During the last year Women Into Politics has continued to liaise with our coalition members and other women’s groups. Women Into Politics wrote a number of letters on different topics and made submissions to some parliamentary inquiries.

In a letter to the NSW Attorney General we outlined some areas of concern regarding the low funding and restricted research capabilities of the Anti-Discrimination Board. We did receive a reply from Minister Hatzistergos, which seemed to misunderstand the content of our letter, and which informed us that the ADB was developing a new enquiry and complaint handling database in 2008.

We wrote in September 2008 to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Stephen Smith, asking that the restrictive sections of the AusAID Family Planning Guidelines that deny women in developing countries in our region assistance with information and services concerning women’s reproductive health and safety be abolished (these sections were originally included to ensure that former Senator Harradine voted for the sale of Telstra). We received an unsatisfactory reply that gives the impression that the Far Right Christian lobby is busy exerting power over the new government.

On 7 November 2008, Women Into Politics wrote a letter to the Prime Minister about the need for a statutory Charter of Rights for Australia, with appropriate protections for women and an equality clause.

Women Into Politics made a submission last February to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Political Donations chaired by Fred Nile. We advocated a ban on Donations from corporations, unions and organizations to parties and candidates, citing the benchmark Canadian legislation. The report of the Inquiry seems to have been moderate and was largely ignored.

Submissions were made in April to three sections of the Prime Minister’s 2020 Summit – they dealt with Open Government and political and parliamentary reform, the need for a Charter of Rights, and the need to halt the undue influence of money in politics (advocating increased public funding).

At the end of August 2008, Women Into Politics made a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations for their “inquiry into pay equity and associated issues related to increasing female participation in the workforce.” Our submission dealt with the need for improved information data collection and dissemination of information, with a new Women’s Bureau, education about pay equity and workplace issues, with a new education unit, further legislation to address pay equity and retirement income issues, and other related issues. This submission is currently on the web at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ewr/payequity/subs/sub49.pdf .

top of page

Numbers: Women in Parliaments and on Boards

When the Women Into Politics coalition of women’s groups was formed in 1992, with the principal aim of getting more women into parliaments, the number of women in parliament stood at 5 percent of members. Interest was developed in the issue and numbers increased for some years, although the increase has slowed in recent years. Women across all Australian parliaments are now at almost 31 percent, a considerable improvement over the 16 years, but still a long way from around the 50 percent that would be equal representation.

In the Commonwealth Parliament, as at 30 October 2008, 29.6% of MPs are women. There are:

26.7% women members in the Lower House – including 32.5% of Labor members, 21.8% of Liberals, 11.1% of Nationals. In the Senate there are 35.5% women members – 43.8% of Labor senators, 28.1% of Liberals, 25% of Nationals, 60% of Greens.

There are 29.9% women members in the NSW Parliament at 30 October 2008. In the Lower House there are a total of 26.9% women members – 33.3% Labor, 21.7% Liberal, 7.7 National, 33.3% Independent.
In the NSW Upper House 31% of members are women – 31.6% of Labor members, 30% of Liberals, 40% of Nationals, and 50% of Greens.

Among all Australian parliaments, the Western Australian Parliament has the smallest percentage of women in its Lower House (18.6%) and the largest number of women in its Upper House (44.1%).

Across all nine parliaments in Australia, women now make up 30.7 per cent of MPs - including 37 per cent of Labor MPs, 22 per cent of Liberal MPs and 50 per cent of Greens MPs.

The 2008 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership reports a decline in female board representation from 8.7 per cent in 2006 to 8.3 per cent in 2008. More women serve on multiple boards than men, which indicates that the pool of individual executive women holding these positions is even smaller than the statistics imply. The proportion of women in executive management positions - the feeder position for CEOs and executive roles - has decreased from 7.5 per cent in 2006 to 5.9 per cent in 2008.

The research found that only 49 per cent of ASX top 200 companies have at least one Board Director who is a woman, compared with 88.2 per cent of top US companies, 76 per cent in the UK, 62.4 per cent in South Africa and 52.8 per cent in Canada.

top of page

Committee

For the 2006-2007 year, Joan Bielski continued as Deputy-President and Public Officer, Judith Steanes continued as Honorary Secretary, Valerie Levy as Honorary Treasurer, and once again we thank our honorary accountant Penny Harrington and our Honorary Auditor Anna Logan. Anne Barber was a member of the Committee who continued her fine work with the website without having a special title.

Barbara McGarity, President

Women Into Politics Inc. 11 November 2008

top of page