New Zealand Women's Suffrage Anniversary

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:59): Today, I want to congratulate the New Zealand parliament and people on the 125^th anniversary of suffrage for women in their country. On 19 September 1893, the New Zealand parliament passed the Electoral Act 1893, with Governor Lord Glasgow subsequently signing it into law, which gave all women in that country the right to vote, becoming the first self-governing country in the world to do so.

The New Zealand government has created a very informative website devoted to the anniversary and has made it a tier 1 commemoration event, acknowledging the importance of the passage of the bill as an event of significant impact on the nation—a world first. To mark this milestone, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday led a march through central Auckland at dawn, I imagine to highlight the new dawn for women who 125 years ago began to enjoy the rights of enfranchisement—the ability to change their lives through the power of the vote.

After the march, the Prime Minister addressed the crowd, some of whom were dressed in 19^th century garb, according to media reports, and paid tribute to the trailblazing women of the past and reflected on the strides still needed to be made towards equality. Winning the right to vote in New Zealand was the result of years of work by campaigners led by Kate Shepherd and her supporters, many from among the ranks of members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. For three years, they compiled a series of massive petitions, around 31 in all, containing over 61,150 signatures calling for the right to vote.

Today, the idea that women could not or should not vote is rightly seen as completely ridiculous. As with the suffrage campaigns here in Australia, Britain and northern Europe, Canada and the USA, the work in New Zealand began in the mid-1800s, part of a worldwide movement shaped by the idea that women should have equal rights to men and that women would use that right to ensure better lives for all by improving society, particularly via moral reforms such as limiting the consumption of alcohol, which had become a real problem, especially for families. Opposition to women's suffrage began to mobilise in all countries, warning that the disturbance of the natural gender roles of men and women would have terrible consequences. Much of this opposition was led by the liquor industry, fearful that women would support prohibition.

Just as in those places, many men supported the women. It is only fair to mention that some men and women thought that women voting was not necessary, one being Queen Victoria. They all thought women's lives would always revolve around the domestic affairs of housekeeping and raising children and that only men were fit for public life and the rough and tumble world of politics. We have heard that sort of language coming out of Canberra lately: politics being described as robust, among other euphemisms? Things seem not to have really changed much in 100 years. All of this suffrage activism was happening at time when not all men had the right to vote either.

New Zealand's women worked closely with their sisters here in Adelaide, themselves very near to having a bill put through the parliament. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in South Australia was led by Elizabeth Webb Nicholl, who watches proceedings in this chamber from the tapestry to my right. They were instrumental in our final petition, gathering in excess of 8,000 of our over 11,000 signatures.

Other groups were working for the vote. Mary Lee led the Women's Suffrage League, and on that committee was our own Muriel Matters' uncle, Charles Matters, the Matters family being strongly in favour of equality. The National Council of Women was another group that was active then and still is today. I note their esteemed member Jessie Street from New South Wales twice ran for the federal seat of Wentworth—another very topical issue.

The enormity of the New Zealand bill and its ramifications cannot be overstated. It gave hope that progress could be made all over the world, that women could be and do more than be responsible to their fathers and then their husbands, that their right to education up to university level would mean that they would be able to contribute to making the world a better place and that their ideals and ideas were relevant and worthy of consideration and implementation.

The bond between Australia and New Zealand is indelible and undeniable and has been forged through war and peace. In fact, our shared democratic values mean that governments change through the power of the pencil rather than the gun, a symbol of our shared commitment to a democratic process that values peaceful transition of power and embraces the roles of men and women in society.

As we in Australia grapple with female representation in parliaments and elsewhere, and recognition of First Nation Peoples, we would do well to look to the example of New Zealand in many ways. Why should we all care about the value of the vote and the right to vote? Because I have come to know, just as women did 125 years ago, that it is through these basic democratic rights that we truly become part of a participatory democracy.