“Women are unquestionably destined to exercise more and more influence upon practical politics in Australia….Now we have an organisation in which all distinctions have gone, and with men and women working equally for the one body.” Robert Menzies, Albury Conference, 1944.
Woops Tony, 1 out of 19 on the Front Bench is a clear fail. Dear old Ming, as Menzies was affectionately known, would be turning in his grave.
It’s a reasonable question to ask though, why the Liberals have selected 18 men and only one woman of “merit” for the front bench. It’s also reasonable to ask what “merit” do the men have over the other capable women in the overall parliamentary party who didn’t get a look in. It’s a curious selection criteria resulting in only six women in the 42 member ministry.
Julia Gillard’s rant about misogyny gains gravitas or is it mere coincidence?
There was a wealth of female talent in the Howard years. What happened to that particular gene pool? That contingent was obviously of “merit”. Why did they disappear?
In Opposition the Liberals have had six years to build up a bank of women with the skills and guts needed for this game and they have simply not done that. In most branches, it seems, the Libs have continued to predominately endorse men.
There’s a saying that women are OK but you can’t beat the real thing. It’s a gay world line but in this context it has its place. Maybe women feel not so much threatened but put off by this Liberal blokey environment. Do they think they have to be the best man for the job?
I get a bit crabby with the tired old clichés of “glass ceilings” and “token woman”. The latter trotted out to describe Julie Bishop’s gig. Some say she has more testicular fortitude than the rest of Abbott’s front bench. With those eyes she can laser the Opposition and sizzle the already withered tangled vine that is the Labor lot. May the Force be with her. But she is alone.
I truly believe woman bring balance into any group. Women are good negotiators, fierce debaters and simply see the world differently to men. Women voters in Australia deserve women in the highest policy-making positions in Parliament. We need them in there to go bat for us. We have been denied this and it’s not fair.
At least Liberal warrior Bronwyn Bishop appears to have worn her aegis close to her chest and kept the blokes at bay as she is now set to take up one of the most important chairs in the House as Speaker.
And talking of Bishops, it looks like Hobart’s new Archbishop Julian Porteous is going to dump the women who have been altar servers during mass at St. Marys Cathedral. It’s reported he wants children and men in the role to encourage them into the priesthood.
St. Paul apparently said “Let women be silent in churches” so no girls in the choirs. From the 15th to the 17th Century pre-pubescent boys were castrated so they could sing for years with their glorious soprano or alto voices.The last Castrato died in 1922.So the church got what it wanted and the girls didn’t.
No, I’m not going to draw the long bow on Tony’s previous life as a trainee Catholic priest at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Sydney and suggest there’s a link but what I press is the matter of opportunity for women in the 21st Century compared to our miserable lot in centuries past. Embrace women in Parliament! Embrace women in the church.
We deserve the opportunity to have equal representation in all walks of life and the country and its people will be better for it. (Corporate world listen up).
There’s something patronizing about Abbott. He trots out his wife and daughters at any grumble that he’s being sexist. When in May this year he announced the paid parental leave scheme he said, “We do not educate women to higher degree level to deny them a career. If we want woman of that calibre to have families, and we should, well we have to give them a fair dinkum chance to do so.”
Sounds Ok but what about women of calibre without degrees in the lower socio economic band? Aren’t their kids worth welcoming into the world and their mums as worthy of paid parental leave?
There’s always a whiff of superiority and self rightousnous with our new PM. He’s undoubtedly smart winning a Rhodes Scholarship and gaining an MA in Politics and Philosophy. But being smart doesn’t mean you have to be a loftier noble.
Politics is a dirty, tough and combatant lifestyle and some women could argue they’re just too smart to take it on. Yep, there’s merit in that but it’s denying female representation where it’s needed.
How about a “fair dinkum chance to do so” Mr. Abbott?
And the last words go to Sir John Dalberg-Acton, (1834 – 1902), an English, Catholic historian, politician and writer with his famous remark, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
*Former ABC journalist Judy Tierney is an ABC legend! This article was first published in Mercury.
• But, according to Danny Clark of The Advocate: Battle of sexes won – by women …
