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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-15 Daily Xml
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WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:44): I must commend the member for Flinders for her contribution yesterday about the history of women in South Australia, which inspired me to make this grievance today.

I have been reading the most recent EMILY's Notes, which is the EMILY's List Australia magazine, of which many women—certainly on this side—are members. It works at promoting and supporting Labor women getting into parliament, and it does that in a number of ways. In the most recent edition, I was reminded of some of the great things that have happened in the Labor Party. Sometimes you forget them and lose sight of those initiatives. Rosemary Follett was elected as the chief minister of the ACT in 1989 and also from 1991 to 1995; Carmen Lawrence was appointed premier of Western Australia in 1990; and also in 1990 Joan Kirner was appointed premier of Victoria.

Certainly, the Liberals, I am sure, were very proud of Kate Carnell being elected as chief minister of the ACT from 1995 to 2000. Having lived in the ACT during that period, I remember the very good job that Kate Carnell did in representing the ACT, albeit in the wrong party, but I certainly acknowledge her skills.

Clare Martin was elected as chief minister of the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2007. Of course, there is the recent victory of Anna Bligh in securing a fifth term for Labor in Queensland, which in itself is a pretty good statistic, and she also became Australia's first elected female state premier. I was also pleased to note that Premier Bligh promoted a number of new members of parliament into leadership roles, with women making up a third of the Queensland cabinet. So, I think that is something to be looked at.

In looking at the parliaments around Australia, Labor women can be proud. It does not mean that we have reached 51 per cent, which is my aim. In Queensland's lower house—and it only has one house—49 per cent of members of parliament are Labor women. In the ACT, 42.9 per cent of the members of the chamber are Labor women. In the Northern Territory, Labor women represent 41.7 per cent of the parliament.

In South Australia women represent 46.4 per cent and, hopefully, that number will go up as time goes on, with more women representing the Labor Party in the South Australian parliament. In our upper house, the statistic is not quite as good. I think we are level with the Liberal Party, with Labor women making up 25 per cent in the Legislative Council, and I think there are two women Liberal representatives also.

In Victoria, Labor women represent 38.2 per cent of the lower house and 31.6 per cent of the upper house. Federally, Labor women represent 32.5 per cent in the lower house, and in the Senate they make up 43.8 per cent. In Western Australia—obviously, not a Labor state any more, very sadly for those people—in the lower house Labor women represent 25 per cent, and in the upper house Labor women represent 53.3 per cent.

In New South Wales, women represent 33 per cent in the lower house and 31.6 per cent in the upper house. In Tasmania, Labor women in the lower house represent 28.6 per cent, and 40 per cent of the members in its upper house are Labor women. I think those statistics have gone up quite considerably, certainly since I started taking an interest in parliamentary politics.

The other thing that I want to note very quickly is a recent report on income and wealth in Australia.

Time expired.

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