Australian women have been allowed to vote for 117 years, yet we have had only one female Prime Minister. There’s been 29 men. Our current parliament is one third female, with a measly 2% increase expected after final counting at this election. The leaders of the three largest political parties are all men, and the outgoing opposition leader will be replaced by a man. The continuing government has been described by a previous female party member as ‘years behind’ the business world in it’s treatment of women. It has lost two of it’s most prominent female representatives in the last year, one as a casualty of the Turnbull leadership spill. Quotas have been floated and rejected, so the position of women in our ruling political party remains peripheral and fragile.
So we lack representation; what then of the policies? Pre election, the government announced a $10 million funding package to address family violence. We know that women are disproportionately affected by domestic violence and on average, one woman a week is killed by her partner. The government’s package however included couples counselling and dispute resolution. This is recognised to be dangerous, and can result in retribution against the victim. Women need to be able to leave violent relationships safely, and they need support to do so. They do not need mediation. The Minister for Social Services has said that ‘nobody is required to use these services’, however that is small comfort for scared women lacking in options.
Abortion has been topical lately, largely due to the Gilead style laws enacted in conservative areas of the United States. Labor had proposed policy which would use hospital funding agreements to ‘expect’ states to provide abortions in their public hospitals. They also hoped to make contraception more easily available. The PM however, wasn’t interested, stating ‘I don’t find that debate one that tends to unite Australians’. The ‘pro-life’ interests of conservatives tend to be less evident when they apply to the life of the child outside the womb or the mother. Women who do bear children are disproportionately affected by the government’s paternalistic ParentsNext welfare program. To ensure they receive payments, parents (most often single mothers) are required to undertake study or other activities, such as ‘story time’ at the library. Miss your play date and you may not be able to afford food. And we all know about the cost of child care, the income gap, rising homelessness in older women, the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and gender bias. The coalition currently lacks policy and the will to prioritise and manage any of these issues.
So the answer is no, this election result is not good news for the sisterhood. 117 years after we got the vote, and we still have men exercising control over our bodies, our money and our freedom.
