Australia Day honours need more women, says Meg Lees

WOMEN are not being recognised enough in the Australia Day honours, according to one of this year’s recipients, former Democrats Senator Meg Lees.

WOMEN are not being recognised enough in the Australia Day honours, according to one of this year’s recipients, former Democrats Senator Meg Lees.

Former Democrats Senator Meg Lees has this year been honoured with an AO — an officer in the general division of the Order of Australia — for her service to the Parliament of Australia and leading contributions to environmental and taxation reform.

And while the 69-year-old grandmother to seven says she is “deeply humbled” to receive the honour, she believes a full reform of who is nominated and recognised needs to occur — starting with a wide-ranging Senate Inquiry.

Former Australian Senator Meg Lees says it’s disappointing that more women have not been recognised.

Ms Lees said women are not nominated enough due to many of the fields recognised being male-dominated and things needed to change now.

This year 607 men were nominated for Australia Day Honours compared to just 278 women. A total of 426 men received honours compared to 215 women.

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Fields like childcare and nursing where women are more prevalent should be given their own specific categories to ensure more women are recognised, Ms Lees said.

“It is again very disappointing more women haven’t been recognised,” she said.

“This is a direct reflection of the glass ceiling. The reality is not a lot of women get to make a difference in the areas that are recognised and the areas where women are more prominent aren’t the focus areas.”

Former Australian Democrats Senator Meg Lees at home in Semaphore, South Australia.

Ms Lees said politicians needed to take a look at the way the honours were structured and implement reform.

“The time is right for us to step back and let the political process examine this. There should be a full Senate inquiry to look at what needs to be done and ensure women are represented at 50/50.”

Ms Lees, a former South Australian Democrats Senator, was instrumental in negotiating and implementing the solar rebate scheme and environmental protections at the time of the introduction of the GST.

Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer said she was looking forward to meeting with groups who had concerns over this issue.

“I look forward to meeting with groups who have views on this issue,” she said.

“While the decision regarding honours is made by the Council for the Order of Australia, I would certainly encourage more Australians to nominate more incredible women from their communities.”

Former prime minister Minister John Howard shakes hands with then Democrats leader Senator Meg Lees after nine days of negotiations secured agreement on the government's GST package in 1999. Picture: Michael Jones

Opposition women spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said more needed to be done to recognise women’s achievements in the Australia Day Honours.

“I think the awards should focus more on the unsung heroes in our community, including the many women who do selfless work without a thought for the public recognition,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The first and most important thing to do is if a woman you know is doing terrific work, nominate her for an award.”

A spokesman for Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove said it was the public’s responsibility to nominate more women.

“The Council for the Order of Australia, along with the Governor-General would wish to see far greater representation of women in our honours system,” the spokesman said.

“There is no limit to the number of women or men that can be recognised, but the system relies on nominations from the public for awards. More community nominations for women would mean more awards and greater equity.”

The spokesman said Sir Cosgrove and the government had been actively campaigning for more female nominations which had seen a 40 per cent increase in nominations on last year.

“Of course there is still more to be done and there will be an inevitable lag until we see the outcomes of those nominations,” he said.

Former sex discrimination commissioner, now Special Rappateur to the United Nations on gender inequality, Elizabeth Broderick said women continued to be undervalued in society and more needed to be done to encourage the public to nominate the women in their communities.

“The system relies on nominations from the community but as women’s contributions are sometimes less visible, the number of nominations are less,” Ms Broderick said from Geneva.

“A sustained this focus on lifting nominations for women needs to continue.”

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