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Will women lose when O'Farrell wins?

By Tim Brunero - posted Monday, 21 March 2011


New South Wale's Labor Government might be a lot of things - but sexist it is not.

In fact it has notched up a startling range of firsts for women over the last 16 years.

It's leader, Kristina Keneally, is a woman – the first NSW Premier ever.

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And her deputy, Carmel Tebutt, is also a woman – the first Deputy Premier ever.

Even the state's Governor is a woman, the first female NSW Governor ever.

Professor Marie Bashir was appointed by the Labor government in 2001.

And State Labor has got women working prominently in key portfolios like Education, Health, and Community Services. In some for the first time ever.

They have doubled the number of female Judges and female school principals.

They have also doubled the proportion of women in senior positions in the public service and have women leading 4 major government agencies.

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Even their Minister for Women, Jodi McKay, is the first ever female Member for Newcastle.

This promotion of women to high office has led to the first group of residents ever in Australia to have solely female political representation.

Voters in the Sydney inner city suburb of Glebe, at local government level, will find their Lord Mayor is Councillor Clover Moore.

Their state parliamentary representative is Verity Firth, and their Premier is Kristina Keneally. Or course their State Governor is Marie Bashir.

Their federal member is Tanya Plibersek and their Prime Minister is Julia Gillard. Their Governor-General is Quentin Bryce and their sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II.

You go girls!

But will Barry O'Farrell and the famously conservative Christian Right faction of the NSW Liberals be as interested in the advancement of women as its Labor party foes?

Well if you look at the numbers of women he has chosen to help him run for government things don't look good.

Only one fifth of current Liberal MPs are women, compared to one third for Labor.

And only one fifth of Coalition candidates in the upcoming March 26 poll are female, compared to over a quarter for Labor.

But while women make up less than a third of the Coalition's shadow ministry, they do hold a number of prominent portfolios.

This includes transport, held by Gladys Berejiklian, and the deputy leadership and shadow health portfolio held by Jillian Skinner.

However over a third of the Labor ministry are women.

Women hold seven of 20 positions, including the most senior roles of Premier, Deputy Premier and Ministers of Health and Education.

But what about the real powerbrokers within the Liberals? What is their attitude to women?

Well the Party's Vice President Michael Photios, who is said to be a key leader in the party's moderate faction, can be said to love women.

In fact, his love of women has caused him a lot of strife in the past.

After losing his state seat in 1999 Photios was labelled a "love rat" after he left his pregnant wife for another woman.

The 50-year-old former Fahey government Minister has since split with another wife and now has a 25-year-old girlfriend.

And of course the shadowy Right wing faction leader David Clarke mightn't endear himself to mainstream women either.

The devout Christian is well known for his anti abortion views.

And if the Liberal's victory on March 26 is as crushing as predicted Barry O'Farrell may well find with Labor reduced to only ten or so seats his real opposition comes from the Christian Right faction inside his own party.

A huge victory might be a double-edged sword for O'Farrell, the relative moderate.

But what about policy?

Well given the lack of policy detail offered by the Liberal Party it's difficult to tell.

But they certainly seem to have all but matched Kristina Keneally's pledge on last week's International Women's Day to trial forcing domestic violence offenders and sex offenders to wear GPS bracelets.

And her plan to create specialist sexual assault courts, where the magistrate and prosecutors are experts in their fields, also received tacit support from the Liberals. The initiative will be trailed in the Illawarra.

The plan includes a pledge to make sure rape victims have access to counselling, police, legal advice, health and forensic services all in one location.

Of course incumbency means state Labor can point to a raft of women focussed initiatives.

Like the $50 million they pumped into Domestic Violence programs last year or the $16 million they've promised to increase home nursing visits to help combat post natal depression.

Or the $800,000 they've pledged to support breastfeeding women or the $1 million they've promised for the NSW Women's Trust which supports disadvantaged women and girls.

Indeed they plan to make all government boards and committees 50% women by next year.

Understandably given their strong position in the polls the state Liberals are little inclined to release too much policy detail to give themselves maximum flexibility when they come to power.

But given the Labor party's seemingly ground breaking record when it comes to women's issues Barry O'Farrell will have his work cut out for him just to cut even.

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About the Author

Tim Brunero is a specialist ‘cyber-journalist’. He works for news.com.au andisthe breakfast presenter for 2SER.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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