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Quotable QuotesThe United Nations Convention For the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Article 7) reads:
Have they (the Australian Parliaments) done so? I think not. Both the major parties have taken the evolutionary route, with women in the parties taking most of the responsibility for furthering the process. - Dame Beryl Beaurepaire at WIP Political Equality for Women Symposium, Canberra (September 1996) Political parties are the main obstacle to lifting the participation of women in national parliaments . . . The real target has to be the political parties. - Head of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on International Women's Day (SMH 10 April 2000)
Both major parties are guilty of disregarding conflicts of interests in the
pursuit of political advantage.
- Editorial: Ethics and Cronyism (SMH 10 April 2000 - commenting on payments to parties and sponsorships of political events by business lobbyists) Parliament these days . . . is a place without wit, style or basic courtesies . . . this is a Government (and an Opposition) that cares little for process, standards and everything for political advantage. - Alan Ramsay (SMH 12 April 2000) There is no such thing as being non-political. Just by making a decision to stay out of politics you are making the decision to allow others to shape politics and exert power over you. And if you are alienated from the current political system, then just by staying out of it you do nothing to change it, you simply entrench it. - Joan Kirner at Women Into Power Conference, Adelaide, October 1994 After a hundred years of women's votes, has the great vision of the suffragists been realised? ... first-wave feminists campaigning for the vote had more than their political rights in mind. They wanted policies. They wanted assistance for poor and desperate women, especially those struggling to support families on their own. They fought for improvements in public health and housing, and legal means for women to escape from violent husbands. They sought access to education for women and girls. They were successful in their policy agenda as they were in their suffrage compaigns and deserve much of the credit for the building of Australia's proud welfare state. Campaigns for more women in parliament, like votes for women 100 years ago, were never just numbers games. Numbers are needed to generate policy reforms, changes that matter especially to women, that won't happen without feminist advocacy ... I urge today's female parliamentarians to start planning what they can do now that will warrant women's celebrations in another 100 years. We are said to be living in a post feminist world, where women's issues are passe, where 'girl power' reigns, and girls can do anything, and where equality, let alone feminism, is redundant. To suggest otherwise is uncool. Women have achieved everything they need. All the battles are won. Maybe there are a few details that remain to be sorted, but they'll work themselves out. There is no need for any kind of action, especially political action, which is a bit of a turnoff these days. Women are getting along alright, and many are doing extremely well; you just have to look at the top jobs occupied by women, and if there are any problems these are the result of individual shortcomings and bad luck. This is simply not true ... a good slogan to remember: Don't get mad, get justice. - Susan Ryan, a former Minister for Education and Minister Assisting the PM on the Status of Women in the Hawke Federal Government (SMH 12/06/2002).
Homepage Last updated 14 November 2006 |
