Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

They are your mates, mate! They are your mates—they are your kith and kin! So understand who we are talking about here!

But I just want to make the observation that this parliament is unique: 60 per cent of the cabinet positions are being held by women. So there are historical firsts of great proportion really: firstly, only two CLP members left in the place; secondly, we have seen the incumbent Chief Minister knocked off his own seat and the seat of Katherine fall to Labor for the first time ever; and we now have a significant majority of women in the ministry, and that is a very important thing. It is good for us, good for the Labor Party and good for Australia, and an indication to our friends opposite that it is okay to preselect women. It is okay to preselect women, and you could do a better job of it! You might try a bit harder to preselect more women so we can see a greater representation of women on the conservative side of politics in this country.

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