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ANNUAL REPORT 2004 – 2005(delivered 31 October 2005)
“The community’s perceptions of an uncaring and corrupt system are fuelled by the secrecy now surrounding much government decision making. These issues threaten the fabric of our democracy. It has come to be recognised by many women and by Women Into Politics that the women elected to parliaments need to be not pale imitations of men seeking preferment, but active and talented women with a full understanding of the influence that feminist principles and women’s interests should generally exert in balanced decision making for the Australian population.” The paragraph above is quoted from the 2003 Annual Report of Women Into Politics, but they are just as relevant in 2005, except that in some respects the situation for women has worsened, particularly since the Liberal/National Coalition took control of both Houses of the federal parliament (when the new Senators took office in July 2005). One bright spot was the support for women by federal women parliamentarians from all parties in the late 2004 abortion debate. The year has been one of great difficulty for women, however, with federal government actions and policy on welfare to work, industrial relations and anti-terrorism becoming a threat to human rights, social justice and economic justice, putting women especially at risk. The right to dissent from the government is even under threat, with current plans for further “anti-terrorism” legislation amounting to an attack on basic human rights and advocacy. Women’s Units: Loss of Influence and AdvocacyThe loss of influence on policy by presentation of considered argument that has been reflected in the refusal by Australian governments and party powerbrokers to heed or listen to any but their own pet women’s organizations has now been growing for almost a decade. This trend to engineering the invisibility of both mainstream women and feminists has been applied also to the professional women’s units that have existed since the 1970s. The downsizing and invisibility of federal and state women’s units/departments continued over this 2004-2005 year. The gutted NSW Department for Women, now a tiny unit hiding in the Premier’s Department, is no longer heard from as an advocate for women. Women’s department staffing, formerly 55 persons, has been reduced to 14, according to the Opposition spokeswoman for women Claire Cusack (Sydney Morning Herald 26 September 2005), and community grants to women’s organisations have been cut from $1 million to $150,000. (Compare this with the money poured into male sports and gaming organizations by the state government!) Ms Cusick was quoted as saying that the Government “has dumbed down the women’s debate and is now dismantling and downgrading its role in advocating for women. The department is supposed to be an agent for change, not a public relations unit. If it isn’t in the script, or if it’s a challenging or thorny issue, it is simply axed,” she said. The Minister for Women, Sandra Nori, is reported in the same newspaper article to have told a budget estimates committee hearing that “she was not bothered by the anomaly” of a man (called Peter Connelly) being put in charge of the women’s unit, [in an acting capacity] even though it is the only time in Australia that a man has been in charge of a department for women. What is left of the women’s department in NSW seems to be a cheap cosmetic fix as an apology for a women’s unit. Some Letters and ActivitiesThe rationale for the need for significant numbers of women in parliaments was clearly demonstrated in late 2004 when a group of 13 Coalition women, and a few men, successfully opposed conservative male federal members and the federal Minister for Health’s drive to engineer an abortion debate and restrict abortion. Later, it was agreed by women MPs from all parties that abortion is non-negotiable and a woman’s right. Women Into Politics wrote to the 13 Coalition women members of the federal parliament, and the male members, to thank them for speaking up for the status quo. We also pointed out the danger of Barnaby Joyce’s stated position on this issue. It was a landmark for the parliamentary women to stick together and speak out publicly for women as they did. We congratulate them on their action and on the outcome. In March 2005, Women Into Politics wrote to the NSW Premier, Mr Carr, voicing a number of concerns. Prominent among these concerns was the downsizing of the (now) Office for Women. We submitted that the funding of the Office for Women should be maintained and increased so that it could adequately audit government programs for equity and their effect on women’s right to equality. We noted with concern also that the Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity had been disbanded, and that the government had failed to appoint a full-time President of the Anti-Discrimination Board from early 2003. The letter noted also that it can take up to three years for a matter brought before the Board and to be concluded if its findings were contested in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. (Our information was that government departments are the most active contestants and rely on “deep pockets”, as one barrister for a department said, to dissuade complainants from proceeding). We asked for the Board to be adequately funded to allow it to act expeditiously. Women Into Politics also in this letter noted that although approximately 30% of state Labor parliamentarians are women, we were disappointed to note that the percentage of women in the ministry does not reflect this. As a result of the March letter, our Women Into Politics President and Secretary met with the Minister for Women, Sandra Nori, in June 2005. She assured us that the Office for Women was monitoring government programs. On the question of the Anti-Discrimination Board, she said that she was not in a position to interfere with the relevant department, and she referred us to Minister Debus. In early October 2005, Women Into Politics Deputy President Judith Steanes and Honorary Secretary Joan Bielski hosted a seminar for 17 visiting Indonesian women at the request of academic staff from Flinders University in Victoria. The women are all employed on gender issues: bureaucrats, members of non-government organizations, and one from the Indonesian equivalent of Women Into Politics. Other speakers on the day were WIP members Keri Huxley (for the Liberal Women’s Forum) and Chris Kibble (for Emily’s List and the ALP). The day was well received and the visitors left with much information. NATSEM ReportWomen Into Politics congratulates the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) for its initiative in commissioning a research study from the National Centre for Economic and Social Modelling (NATSEM) to examine and monitor the impact on women of Commonwealth policy changes, in particular the inter-active impacts of changes to the income support and industrial relations frameworks. Women Into Politics supported this important research study, along with over 80 other women’s groups. NATSEM has been used by the government for research commissions, although that did not stop government spokespersons from challenging the results of the research when it revealed that women, especially those on lower incomes, would be much disadvantaged by the government’s planned changes. Federal Election and SenateThe state of women’s representation in the Commonwealth Parliament following the October 2004 election is a marginal increase in the numbers: women are 24.6% of MHRs and 35.4% of Senators (new Senators did not take office until July 2005). There are three women in the Cabinet, six in the ministry as a whole, and three women are parliamentary secretaries. The Shadow Cabinet has four women, the shadow ministry has seven, and there are five female shadow parliamentary secretaries As a result of the 2004 federal election, the Coalition government gained a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is the first time in many years that a government has had control of both houses. It has been said that the ALP register of party preferences for votes to the ALP “above the line” in the 2004 Senate election was mismanaged, to such an extent that the ALP has been blamed by many for the Senate election result favouring the Coalition parties. That the reason the government has control of the Senate in 2005 is because the ALP “stuffed up” the list of preferences that they allocated on behalf of everyone who voted by marking the ALP box.. In a newspaper article (Sydney Morning Herald, 11 October 2005), journalist Mike Seccombe discussed proposals made in a recent parliamentary report for electoral changes. This report apparently has the status of being prepared by a parliamentary committee, but the government appears as yet not to have responded. It would be a step forward for democracy if we electors were able to vote for the Senate above the line for the parties in order of our own preference, as I myself have strongly advocated in the past. I have always objected to having people's votes manipulated by just voting for one party in the Senate - and that one party is then able to take over the votes and determine the rest of the preferences to suit itself. Bill of RightsGiven the gay abandon with which the Coalition government seems to be using its untrammeled parliamentary power, ignoring parliamentary processes and pushing controversial legislation through the two federal Houses in minuscule timeframes, a legislated Bill of Rights has become more urgent than ever to protect the basic human rights that we have hitherto taken for granted. It is a great pity that past governments did not act to protect the rights of citizens when they were urged to. The 2001 publication by Women Into Politics of . A Women’s Charter for Political Reform: a charter for political equality for women and for good government for all Australian citizens advocates a Bill of Rights (page 23). This publication remains a relevant commentary on Australian politics and provides ideas for change. Joan Bielski’s 2004 PaperIn December 2004, Joan Bielski gave an invited paper at the Australian and International Feminisms Conference. The conference celebrated 30 years of publication of the Australian feminist journal Hecate. Joan’s paper was on the theme Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going, and she drew on her vast personal and historical knowledge in an impressive critique of feminist action and the women’s movement in Australia. An edited version of the paper was published in Social Alternatives (QUP, Spring 2005). It is an overview of some of the gains, the countervailing forces, the losses and failures that Australian women have experienced since the 1970s. ArchivesWomen Into Politics’ thanks Honorary Secretary Joan Bielski, who put much time and effort during 2004-2005 into preparation for the archiving of the Women Into Politics records (and also her own papers). She was encouraged and assisted by member Sue Marks. The resultant boxes of materials were processed by a professional archivist, catalogued and placed with the Archives of the State Library of NSW. The archives will be listed with the Australian Women’s Archives Project, a register established on the web by NFAW as a tool for finding references to the records of Australian women and their organizations. CommitteeJoan Bielski continued as Women Into Politics’ Honorary Secretary during the 2004-2005 year, Valerie Levy continued as Honorary Treasurer, and we were pleased to have Anna Logan as our Honorary Auditor again. Judith Steanes continued her dual role as Deputy President and Correspondence Secretary. I would like to thank the members of the Women Into Politics Committee for their ongoing support of the organisation. Greater use of email among members of the Committee has assisted efficient communication. It was decided to have a moratorium on membership fees, since the current parlous state of women’s affairs has made letter writing a priority and caused us to defer the planning of activities such as seminars to more propitious times. It is expected that women’s groups will become more active generally as new elections approach. Barbara McGarity Homepage Last updated 14 November 2006 |
