Parliamentary gender equality a long way off
Sarah Henderson’s entry to the Senate today marks the first time that chamber has achieved gender equality - but it is jawdropping how many lower house seats have never been held by women, writes David Mills.
Opinion
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Sarah Henderson’s return to federal parliament on Thursday marked the first time the Senate has ever had an equal number of men and women sitting on those red ochre benches.
There are now 38 men and 38 women in our upper house - prompting Prime Minister Scott Morrison to describe it as a great day for women around Australia.
It’s a worthy milestone, but before we get too carried away, it’s worth noting just how far Australia has to go before it hits gender equality in the house that counts - the House of Representatives.
Of the 151 MPs who currently sit in the lower house, 46 of them are women - just over 30 per cent.
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But what is really staggering is the number of electorates that have never been represented by a female MP: 69 seats, or 45 per cent of all electorates.
Some of those seats date back to Federation, which means that for 118 years, the voters within them have only ever been represented by a bloke.
And some of the seats which have been won by women, have only been held briefly. The seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s east, for example, was occupied by Dr Kerryn Phelps for just under six months from late 2018 until this year’s federal election, but for the rest of its history (and it dates back to 1901), it’s been represented by a man.
If you think Australia is making forward strides in gender equality in parliament, this year’s federal election was a depressing reminder that progress remains slow.
At this year’s May 18 poll, just four electorates that had previously been men-only domains were finally won by a female candidate.
There were two in Victoria (Anne Webster won Mallee for the Nationals and Peta Murphy picked up Dunkley for the ALP), and two in New South Wales (Fiona Martin claimed Reid for the Liberals and Zali Steggall knocked off former prime minister Tony Abbott in the seat of Warringah).
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New South Wales is the state with the most number of seats that have never been held by a woman, with a total of 21, but it is also the state with the most seats, full stop, with a total of 47.
In percentage terms, Victoria and Queensland are the worst performers: 50 per cent of all electorates in these three states have always been held by men. (That’s 15 out of 30 in Queensland, and 19 out of 38 in Victoria.)
By comparison, 40 per cent of the seats in South Australia and Tasmania have always been male-dominated. (Tasmania currently has five seats and SA has ten, after the seat of Port Adelaide was abolished earlier this year.)
Somewhat surprisingly, Western Australia has sent the greatest proportion of female MPs to Canberra, with men solely holding on to just five of the state’s 16 electorates (or 31 per cent).
Looking at the performance of each of the major parties, none have achieved gender parity in terms of the pollies they send to Canberra.
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Labor is doing the best: forty-one per cent of its House of Reps members are women, and 46 per cent of its total Canberra representation (both House of Reps and Senate) is female.
The Liberals trail, with just a 25 per cent showing of women in the lower house, and 30 per cent when both houses are combined.
The Nationals are doing even worse, with just one in 10 of their House of Representatives MPs being a woman, and a total of 28 per cent for both houses of parliament.
“The Liberal Party still has a journey to go on this issue,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday.
You’re not kidding, mate. But then, so do Australian voters.
David Mills is a journalist with News Corp
Originally published as Parliamentary gender equality a long way off
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