MY EXPERIENCES OF BEING A WOMAN IN PARLIAMENT IN AUSTRALIA
A PERSONAL VIEW: MY EXPERIENCES OF BEING A WOMAN IN PARLIAMENT IN AUSTRALIA
Anna Watson, MP is the Member
for Shellharbour in the Parliament of New South Wales, Australia. Anna was raised in a traditional working-class family that shared the values of ‘a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay’, and the right to equal opportunity for all to make every family’s life better. Prior to her election to Parliament, Anna worked a variety of jobs, which included training for the health insurance industry, and as a professional trade union official with the United Services Union (USU).
On 9th October 2012, Hon. Julia Gillard, MP, the then Member of the Australian Federal Parliament for Lalor and the first female Australian Prime Minister, gave a powerful speech in response to a motion raised by Hon. Tony Abbott, MP, the then Member for Warringah and the Leader of the Opposition, to have Hon. Peter Slipper, MP removed as the Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives over crude and sexist texts that he had sent to a parliamentary aide. Tony Abbott, a close personal friend and supporter of Peter Slipper, criticised Julia Gillard for her “shameful” lack of action on the matter, while simultaneously ‘cat-calling’ her in the chamber. Tony Abbot had famously been photographed outside Parliament alongside climate change protesters who were holding a banner that said ‘ditch the witch’ in reference to the then Australian Prime Minister, and he was also alleged to have asked when un-married Julia Gillard’s long-term partner was going to make ‘an honest woman’ out of her during a Parliamentary sitting. Her now famous rebuttal speech captures what – I feel – is a good place to start explaining what it’s like to be a woman in the field of modern politics. In a key excerpt from her address, she comments: “In an interview about women being underrepresented in institutions of power in Australia, the Leader of the Opposition [Tony Abbott] says: ‘If it’s true that men have more power generally speaking
40 | The Parliamentarian | 2019: Issue One | 100th year of publishing
than women, is that a bad thing? What if men are by physiology or temperament, more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?’ This is the same man, who today says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office, because today, it suits his flimsy political purpose. Well I hope the Leader of the Opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation. Because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror. This is a man who as the former Minister for Health said, and I quote: ‘Abortion is the easy way out.’ This is a man who during the carbon-tax campaign said, and I quote: “What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing…” And then of course, I continue to be offended by his ongoing sexism and misogyny right at this moment, as he sits there as the Leader of the Opposition, catcalling across this table at me as I sit here as Prime Minister, shouting cave-man slurs about my personal marital status like: ‘If the Prime Minister wants to make an honest woman of herself…’, something that would never have been said to any man sitting in this chair. I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever.” In my view, this is the stateof-play for the Australian political approach to gender. As a female
Member of the New South Wales Parliament, I am assessed daily on my choice of clothing, my hair and whether I have an agreeable demeanour. For men in politics, their ambition has them categorised as ‘leaders’. For women, we are labelled “aggressive”, “mannish” or “difficult” for the same qualities. Female MPs, including me, on both sides of the ideological coin are regularly glanced over for promotional opportunities, and generally only given a look-in when the barrel of male candidates has been exhausted. It seems to me that we’re given token, vanity promotions as a kind of box-ticking attempt at equality, rather than actually regarding us as political powerhouses or ‘real players’. I feel that women in politics
“As a female Member of the New South Wales Parliament, I am assessed daily on my choice of clothing, my hair and whether I have an agreeable demeanour. For men in politics, their ambition has them categorised as ‘leaders’.”