Premier The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk, Deputy Premier The Honourable Jackie Trad, Attorney-General & Minister for Justice The Honourable Yvette D’Ath, and assembled Leaders of Queensland,

 

I was reading a very interesting article today called ‘Meet the women who run Queensland – by Felicity Caldwell’ – a great article about the tremendous strides taken in the Sunshine State to promote Gender Equity and recognise the important place Women have to play in providing leadership and experience to our communities in Australia.

 

Queensland truly is forging a fascinating and admirable path in promoting the qualities of Female leadership in that regard, and it’s great to see – and we need to see more of it.

 

As you may be aware, many studies have shown Women are uniquely suited to leadership positions in ways that have in the past not been properly recognised and promoted. It is beyond time that Women’s aptitude for leadership is given the greater prominence it deserves.

 

So in considering these issues today I came upon a page concerning Queensland’s electoral funding laws – and there is clearly room for improvement here to ensure the gains of recent years in Queensland are not lost. A quick glance around other Australian Parliaments reveals that progress can often be halted or reversed if legislative norms aren’t established safe-guarding the progress already made.

 

Just take a look at the Federal Parliament at the moment and the representation of Women in the Federal Government! Scandalously low, and it truly shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, and wouldn’t have been allowed to happen if previous Governments had been pro-active in locking in the gains made in recent decades. Instead, no reform was put in place and the lack of Women in leadership positions in the current Federal Government lays bare a problem that should never have happened.

 

 

Funding and Disclosure

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https://www.ecq.qld.gov.au/candidates-and-parties/funding-and-disclosure

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This is the section that is particularly relevant to undergoing an overdue dose of reform.

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Policy development funding

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A registered political party is eligible for policy development funding if the party:

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·        was registered at the last general state election and has remained registered

·        has at least 1 elected member of parliament.

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Detailed information is available in the funding and disclosure handbook.

 

 

Simply put, some additional requirements need to be inserted into the Electoral Act, and it needs updating given the current act governing election funding dates to 1992!

 

I would suggest that the additional requirements for a political party contesting an election in Queensland to receive funding would be as follows.

 

3) A minimum of 50% of candidates nominated for election by a registered political party must be Women.

 

In the Queensland Legislative Assembly (of 93 Members) that would place a requirement for a registered political party running in all 93 seats to have at least 47 Female candidates. If the party was only running in an even number of seats, then the nominative split could of course be 50:50 (Women: men).

 

4) For any political party that wins at least 4 seats in the Queensland Parliament – that party must ensure at least 40% of it’s elected Members of the Legislative Assembly must be Women.

 

This ensures small, localised parties – like the Katter’s Australian Party for instance which has 3 seats – would not be impacted by this requirement – but, if Katter’s Australian Party wants to grow it’s representation to 4, or 5, or 6 or more MLAs the KAP must ensure that at least 40% of it’s elected MLAs must be Women otherwise the KAP (or any other party) would not be eligible for electoral funding.

 

Full stop.

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This works out to a ratio of

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If a party elects 4 MLAs – 2 must be Women;

5 MLAs – 2 must be Women;

6 MLAs – 3 must be Women;

7 MLAs – 3 must be Women;

8 MLAs – 4 must be Women;

9 MLAs – 4 must be Women;

10 MLAs – 4 must be Women;

11 MLAs – 5 must be Women;

12 MLAs – 5 must be Women;

13 MLAs – 6 must be Women;

14 MLAs – 6 must be Women;

15 MLAs – 6 must be Women etc. etc.

 

Analysing the current Queensland Parliament shows the ALP has 48 elected MLAs compared to the LNP with 39.

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Under the proposed legislative reform this means to have qualified for electoral funding at the recent Queensland Election, or indeed to qualify for electoral funding at Queensland’s next Election were these results to be exactly repeated – the ALP would need to elect 20 Women (of 48 elected MLAs) and the LNP would need to elect 16 Women (of 39 elected MLAs).

 

ALP

At present of the 48 elected ALP MLAs in the Queensland Assembly the breakdown is: 23 Women cf. 25 men – which means the ALP would have, and will do so again at a future Queensland election, qualified for electoral funding with a repeat of this result.

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LNP

At present of the 39 elected LNP MLAs in the Queensland Assembly the breakdown is: 6 Women cf. 33 men – which means the LNP is a long long way from a gender equitable breakdown of its MLAs – a full 10 Women short.

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Why are Incentives & Carrots necessary to provoke overdue change?

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The dire state of the LNPs Female electoral representation is not something that should be excused, or even tolerated, it should be an issue that is confronted and overcome as expeditiously as possible.

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Given the slow, and even retrograde, process of the LNP moving towards gender equity in its Parliamentary representation I believe that the legislative changes I have proposed above should in fact be legislated as soon as possible and implemented to come into effect prior to the next Queensland Election – which I understand is due on October 31, 2020 – just over two years away.

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The other reason that Queensland needs to make a priority of this legislative reform is to provide a shining example to other States and Territories in Australia about what is possible and what can be achieved.

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Over the coming year there are important State Elections coming up in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales – and by providing an example as suggested above this may give the likes of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews the courage to institute similar legislative reform (long overdue) in Victoria in time for this year’s Victorian State Election. Time is running short for Andrews to make such bold reform, but a successful implementation of this reform in Queensland would no doubt give Andrews greater political cover to allow Victoria to follow swiftly in Queensland’s footsteps.

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So, in closing, no time to waste!

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All the best,

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Regards,

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J. Kendall

Chief Executive Officer

Real WOMEN Are LEADERS