The Daily Telegraph asked me to comment yesterday on the representation of women in the parliament.

The Tele’s request prompted me to compare our performance with the conservative parties, who’ve consistently attacked our affirmative action rule. They do so again in today’s paper.

The Tele’s request prompted me to compare our performance with the conservative parties, who’ve consistently attacked our affirmative action rule. They do so again in today’s paper.

The results are below.  It’s a rough count – so please forgive minor errors. The trend is pretty clear, and it vindicates our decision to introduce affirmative action almost 20 years ago.

The courageous women who took up this fight argued that the parliament should reflect the community and that we should aim for equal representation for men and women in Labor’s parliamentary ranks.

There’s still a lot more for Labor to do to meet this goal. In the near term, we should redouble our efforts to hit the 40% target. (We currently fall just short at 37% - we can do better than this.)

But we have performed so much better than the conservatives. We have significantly greater women’s representation in the parliament.  Even more significantly, the number of women holding very senior decision making roles in our Government reflects the numbers in the parliament. 

In start contrast, the National Party has no women in the House of Representatives, and no women in the Shadow Ministry.

Women in Parliament

37% of Labor representatives in the Parliament are women.

21% of Liberal representatives in the Parliament are women.

11% of National Party representatives in the Parliament are women.

Women in Cabinet

4 Labor women in Cabinet of 20 including PM (20%)

 2 Liberal women in a Shadow Cabinet of 20 (10%)

Women in the Outer Ministry

6 Labor women in Outer Ministry of 10 (60%)

4 Liberal women in a Shadow Outer Ministry of 12 (36%).

Women in the Ministry

10 Labor women in a Ministry of 30 (30%)

6 Liberal women in a Shadow Ministry of 32 (19%).

There are no women representing the National Party in the Shadow Ministry.

Women in the reps

32% of Labor representatives in the House of Representatives are women

22% of Libs in House of reps are women.

There are no women representing the National Party in the House of Representatives.

Women in the Senate

48% of Labor representatives in the in Senate are women

21% of Liberal representatives in Senate are women.

There are only 2 women representing the National Party in the Senate.