Women lead Queensland election campaign, but remain firmly in the minority

More women are vying for a seat in Queensland Parliament than any other time in the state’s history and both major parties are being led by women for the first time, but one expert says the state election campaign is still leaving women behind.

A Brisbane Times analysis of all 597 candidates in this month’s election reveals 219 are women, making up just 37 per cent.

Labor and the LNP are outlining their visions for QueenslandCredit: Danielle Cronin

That was up from the 142 women who nominated in the 2017 poll, which made up 32 per cent of candidates.

Of Labor’s 93 candidates, 53 are men and 40 are women while the LNP have endorsed 67 men and 26 women.

The 2020 election will mark the first time in federal or state history where the leaders of both major parties are women.

Griffith Gender Equality Research Network co-convenor Susan Harris Rimmer said both leaders, whose election campaigns have focused heavily on job creation, needed to better support the thousands of women who had lost their jobs in the pandemic.

"Because they're in the kinds of industries that have been affected, like retail and hospitality, tourism, human services, creative arts and universities," she said.

"I'm really sick of seeing both female leaders in high-vis and hard hats. It's lazy politics and it doesn't make sense in this particular election, that's not where the jobs were lost under COVID.

"So I don't understand why they're still using that as shorthand for jobs, I think we should see them in childcare centres and Westfields, with lots of empty shops.

"I don't quite understand why they're obsessed with this whole high-vis, hard hats equals that's the only kind of work that we value."

Professor Rimmer said it was "pretty disappointing" women did not make up half of the nominated candidates.

"The fact that we've got this historic battle between two female leaders shouldn't mask that there is still deep inequality in representation, political representation," she said.

"It doesn't correspond with the make-up of the population, and there's probably other disparities in there around ethnicities and first nation status and disability and a range of other things.

"We actually need a parliament that looks like us, it should mostly represent us in proportion and if it doesn't, we've got to find out why it's been distorted in particular ways, and often that's because we do have these limited ideas of what leadership looks like."

Women For Election chief executive Licia Heath said it was not just about endorsing female candidates but backing them in safe seats.

"If we want more women in our parliamentary chambers then we have to make sure that when a man is either stepping down, retiring, then they need to be replaced by a woman, otherwise the numbers just don't go up, it's just that simple," she said.

Women’s issues were in the spotlight on Thursday after a 2018 Facebook post from the LNP’s candidate for the ultra-marginal seat of Mundingburra emerged.

Glenn Doyle captioned a video about women not needing to be educated after they are married: "A lot of good points raised on both sides here – I’m afraid I’ll have to sit on the fence".

"Definitely more research needed!" he wrote on the post from September 2018.

When asked about the post, LNP leader Deb Frecklington said: "Well absolutely I don’t support that."

"No one would support that. I’m an educated woman standing right before you at a university, I have three daughters of course I don’t support that."

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she wanted to see women treated equally across our state in everything they do.

"I have been a very strong believer in that all of my life, that women can do anything. I want to make sure our education system, our TAFE system is preparing both boys and girls for the future," she said.

When asked whether she would describe herself as a feminist, the Premier said: "If a feminist is about believing in equality, absolutely."

When asked the same question, Ms Frecklington said: "I identify as a female who wants to get Queensland working again".

Candidate breakdown

All candidates: 36.6% women, up 5 per cent from 2017 election

• 378 men
• 219 women

Labor: 43 per cent women

• 53 men
• 40 women

LNP: 27 per cent women

• 67 men
• 26 women

ONP: 37 per cent women

• 57 men
• 32 women

Greens: 46 per cent women

• 50 men
• 43 women

KAP: 23 per cent women

• 10 men
• 3 women

Palmer's United Australia Party: 16 per cent women

• 46 men
• 9 women

NQ First: 20 per cent women

• 4 men
• 1 woman