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1.1 The Commonwealth Sex and Race Discrimination Acts should be amended to apply specifically to political parties.
1.2 The Commonwealth Electoral Act should be amended to:
1. 2.1 provide for the appointment of three additional Electoral Commissioners - one appointed on the recommendation of the Australian Bar Association, and two appointed on the recommendation of the Australasian Political Studies Association, to include one with expertise on sex discrimination issues - to provide advice, to represent the interests of voters, and to ensure the integrity of the electoral process;
1.2.2 require the political parties to incorporate natural justice and anti- discrimination principles in their rules, procedures and practices and to comply with Australia's commitments under the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Article 7;
1.2.2 require the political parties to incorporate natural justice and anti-discrimination
1.2.3 rrequire the political parties to show cause why they have failed to have nominate approximately equal numbers of women and men as candidates for pre-selection in winnable seats at each election, with penalties for failure to comply;;
1.2.4 penalise political parties which do not pre-select equal numbers of women as candidates for winnable seats (that is, seats with a margin of 5% either way). The penalty should be a 5% reduction in their public funding for every 5% (or part thereof) that they fall short of pre-selecting 45% of women or men;
1.2.5 to require the Australian Electoral Commission, in consultation with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, to assist the political parties in reforming their pre-selection rules and procedures to ensure that fairness and equity prevail.
1.3 Cabinet and Shadow Cabinets should be approximately 50% male and 50% female as a matter of equity. The parties should be required to implement this reform over two elections.
1.4. Each parliament should establish a standing committee with a mandate to . examine the impact on Australian women of all proposed domestic policies, programs and legislation; and to examine the impact of Australia's foreign aid and international treaty policies and programs on women world wide.
2.1 The Commonwealth Electoral Act should be amended to:
2.1.1 require the Australian Electoral Commission to oversee the financial management and the organisational processes of the political parties, just as consumer affairs departments oversee consumer and voluntary organisations and the Australian Securities Commission oversees business;
2.1.2 require political parties, and their individual state branches, not only to report annually to the Australian Electoral Commission, but to publish audited and detailed accounts of all income, including donations, and expenditure in publicly accessible places such as their websites and the print media;
2.2 The following reforms should be legislated and implemented to control the influence of money in electioneering and in political life:
2.2.1 public funding of elections and electioneering should be substantially increased and accompanied by increased accountability and decreased private funding;
2.2.2 the giving and receiving of direct donations or donations through a third party to political parties for any purpose should be restricted by law to a specified amount, say $1,000 per annum for individuals and $10,000 per annum for companies, corporations, organisations and unions, and any monies above such sums or gifts in kind of similar value should be considered a bribe and a criminal offence;
2.2.3 all donations should be registered with the Australian Electoral Commission within 21 days of the receipt of the donation by the party, and the Commission should be required to publish the lists of donations on their website and also in the print media at least quarterly;
2.2.4 payments for access to a serving politician, or payments to serving politicians for appearances at public functions, other than for documented costs, should be illegal and the receiving of payments for these purposes should be a criminal offence, for which the penalty should be exclusion from the parliament and from elected public office for a period of ten years.
2.3 As a consequence of their public funding, political parties should be required to develop a civics education program, inviting public and especially female and young people's participation in the political process, advertising their regular meetings and encouraging members and the public to join in debating the political issues of the day.
3.1 A national independent statutory Conduct, Privileges and Remuneration Commission, consisting of a lawyer nominated by the Australian Bar Association, an expert on financial accountability nominated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, and an expert on superannuation nominated by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, should be established with the powers to:
3.1.1 decide on and administer both House and Senate remuneration, superannuation, allowances, the register of property and pecuniary interests of members, privileges, entitlements and facilities for parliamentarians;
3.1.2 investigate standards of probity, political lobbying and size and circumstances of donations; investigate abuses of and enforce penalties for breaches of executive power, financial misconduct and the abuse of parliamentary entitlements.
3.1.3 investigate abuses of and enforce penalties for breaches of executive power, financial misconduct and the abuse of parliamentary entitlements.
4. CHANGING THE SYSTEM OF PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION
4.1 Proportional representation must be maintained where it already exists. In addition, in Houses where proportional representation does not currently exist, it should be introduced. Women have historically gained better representation at elections where a proportional representation system is used.or, a Alternatively, a multi-member electoral system should be instituted where proportional representation does not currently exist, souch that parliaments more will more accurately reflect and the male/female composition of the population and the wishes of both majority and minority voters.
4.2 Lower house parliamentary terms in all our parliaments should be uniformly set at a fixed term of four years, and upper house terms should be no more than two lower house parliamentary terms. As the Australian Constitution prescribes a maximum term of three years, the question of a federal four-year term should be put to the people at the same time as the next federal election.
4.3 The parliamentary terms of office for MPs should be limited to three consecutive terms in the lower houses and two consecutive terms in the upper houses, except where the Member or Senator is a current Minister or current Shadow Minister.
4.4 Parliamentary practices should be reformed to make our parliaments more family friendly and to allow parliamentarians to lead a more normal private life, through the following reforms:
4.4.1 the provision of in-house childcare for the children of both parliamentarians and parliamentary staff;
4.4.2 parliamentary sitting hours should be brought into line with normal working hours and family routines;
4.4.3 parliamentary sessions should be longer and aligned to school and tertiary institution holidays where possible.
4.5 Parliamentary leaders should take responsibility for improving the level of political discourse and behaviour in our parliaments, for reducing personal attacks, sexist language and ill-mannered behaviour, and for improving the overall level of political debate in and outside the Parliament.
5.1 The Australian Government should legislate a Bill of Rights which:
5.1.1 has overriding powers to encompass rights that have been enunciated in various UN instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;
5.1.2 includes an equality right for women;
5.1.3 explicitly protects substantive equality rather than formal equality;
5.1.4 recognises rights in relation to sexual orientation;
5.1.5 contains provisions for special measures to address inequality in society;
5.1.6 operates in the private as well as in the public sphere.
5.2 The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission should be empowered to oversee the implementation, and to enforce penalties for...breaches, of the legislation, and should be adequately funded to facilitate human rights education and to provide for free access to the courts for victims of breaches of their human rights.
6.1 People's Conventions should be held during every second parliamentary term, or more often if there is a special identified need, such as a renewal of the debate on a republic, for the purpose of making recommendations to the Federal Government for changes to the Constitution, to our political institutions and to public policy.
6.2 Any registered voter should be eligible for nomination to the People's Conventions.
6.3 Election of delegates to conventions should be simultaneous with the Federal Elections, and all serving politicians of any parliament should be excluded from nomination as a delegate to a People's Convention.
6.4 Matters agreed to by a two-thirds majority of delegates at a Conventions should be referred to parliament for action.
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