Women in Parliament

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:39): There have been many highs and lows for women in politics in recent months. The elections, both federally and in the Northern Territory, saw women increase their representation overall, but there have also been some unfortunate comments made, such as those by former prime minister John Howard, intimating that women will never be equal and they should just put up with their lot of not being equally represented in parliament. To that, I point out to him the fantastic outcome of the Northern Territory election.

The Northern Territory has 12 of its 25 seats filled by women, a 48 per cent overall representation. Even more significantly, Northern Territory Labor has announced its cabinet, which has the highest representation of women in any cabinet of Australia so far, with 62.5 per cent of the cabinet being women—five out of eight ministers being women—eclipsing the previous record of the Queensland Labor Palaszczuk cabinet with 57 per cent of ministers being women.

Further, Northern Territory Labor is the first government in Australian history to achieve an equal representation of men and women, with nine of its 18 seats being held by women. This is an historic victory for women's representation in Australia, and certainly proves John Howard wrong: it can be done. I congratulate all female candidates in the Northern Territory; 19 female candidates from across the political spectrum were in contention for seats in the Northern Territory, with 16 seats out of 25 having female candidates in the offing.

It would be remiss of me to not also congratulate the Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory, with one of their two seats being held by a woman, Lia Finocciaro, for the seat of Spillet. They too have achieved parity of female representation.

The Northern Territory is a success story in representation for women after this election, and stands in contrast to our recent federal election. Federally, the representation of women is just 32 per cent, and, while we have managed to increase the number of women by four from 2013, sadly the representation for women in the Liberal Coalition has fallen. Of the 90 seats in the 44^th parliament, 20 per cent (or 18) were held by women. In the 45^th parliament a dismal 17 per cent of their seats are held by women, only 13 of 76.

Labor, meanwhile, can tell a happier tale for parliamentary women. In the 44^th parliament 21 of our 55 seats were held by women, or 38 per cent, and today we have 27 women in our 68-seat contingent, upping our percentage to just shy of 40 per cent women. The trend is clear: Labor women continue to grow in numbers and strength, and we need to continue our efforts to reach parity.

Independents and minor parties, too, have helped to strengthen women in the House of Representatives, with Cathy McGowan and Nick Xenophon Team's Rebekah Sharkey helping to increase the percentage of women in the house from 26.7 per cent to 28.6 per cent.

The Senate tells a better story for women generally, with 30 of 76 seats, or 39.5 per cent of seats, being held by women. For the Liberal Coalition, women do much better in the Senate, where they represent 26.6 per cent of their party's offering but, pathetically, they have seen no growth since the 44^th parliament.

The Labor women's contingent in the Senate suffered a devastating blow with the loss of the Hon. Anne McEwen, although I am sure that our senators there will continue the great work of representing South Australia. Anne was particularly passionate about workers rights, Indigenous Australians, women's representation, veterans affairs and higher education, and her passion, dedication and fierce commitment to Labor values were a great asset to the Senate and to the Labor Party. We are very saddened to lose her from that position.

Although the Northern Territory has achieved history, nationally we are still in need of greater representation of women. The average representation of women in Australian governments is 34.7 per cent. There is no excuse for it being less than 50 per cent.

After the Northern Territory, Tasmania fares best with a 42 per cent representation, while here in South Australia we have a mere 25.15 per cent of parliamentarians being women. Eleven of Labor's 32 representatives in this parliament are women, giving us a 34.4 per cent representation. Again, sadly, the Liberal Party stays true to its dismal track record and only has five women in its 29-member contingent, a dismal 17.2 per cent.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: How many have you got in here?

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: High quality women.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: There should be 50 per cent of high quality women in this place, sir. We need to look to the Northern Territory's historic vote and question why we are not achieving equity in our parliament. There is no excuse in 2016. Women have had the vote in this state for 122 years and it saddens me that in that time our achievement has only been around 25.5 per cent of parliamentarians being women. At the same time, the Northern Territory has achieved 48 per cent. It can be done; they have shown us that.