Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As of February 2019, around the world, only 24.3 per cent and 20.7 per cent of all national parliamentarians and government ministers respectively were women. Australia's not doing much better. As of now, women make up 35 per cent of our parliament, with only 28.3 per cent of our House of Representatives and 38.7 per cent of the Senate being female. This is in no way a reflection of the percentage of women we have in our streets, in our suburbs and in society. That's not even considering the representation, or lack thereof, of the diversity that we have in ethnicity, socio-economic background and age.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be involved with Jasiri Australia's Girls Takeover Parliament program, which saw 60 young women pairing up with parliamentarians to take over their offices for the day. In my office I had Ashley Liang, a university student from Melbourne who is passionate about climate action, increasing representation and bringing policy back to politics. Ashley put this speech together, and I'm very proud to deliver it to parliament.

One of the first things I asked Ashley was why she wanted to participate in this program. Her response was something that I've heard many times before. Politics has always been something that had interested her but had never been something that was accessible. She'd never seen someone who represented her and her voice and beliefs, and she'd never seen how she could get past the many barriers, both societal and cultural, which had long prevented women—and especially women of colour—from entering into leadership positions. Increasingly young women are being excluded from our democracy—told to believe in our systems and institutions and freedoms, yet denied the opportunities to engage and work with representatives to ensure that their voices are heard. The work that Girls Takeover Parliament does is important, primarily because of what Ashley said to me. It gives young women access to leaders and role models, and empowers them to feel like they can do it despite all the barriers.

I was presented with the Girls Takeover Parliament's Young Women's Charter for Australian Democracy by Ashley, on behalf of all the young women involved with the program. In it, the feelings of the young women involved in this program were made clear. While they believed in our Australian democracy and all the rights and freedoms that come with it, for most of them their lived experience of democracy was not one which aligned with the promises made to them by us as representatives. The charter calls on the government to pledge to facilitate opportunities for young women and minorities to be engaged in our democracy and to make sure that parliament is representative on the basis of age, ethnicity and gender. Essentially it is asking us to help remove those barriers that are preventing young women like Ashley from feeling like they can be involved with leading and representing the country.

The reason that I said yes to having a young woman take over my office for the day was in the hope that I could be part of that bridge between young women and parliament. The fact is that these young women are going to be part of our next generation of leaders, and it's our duty to ensure that they feel empowered enough to take on those roles. We need to start listening and engaging with the issues that matter to young women so that they know that they matter.

As of now, only one per cent of young women aged 15 to 19 want a career in politics. One per cent of young women want a career in politics. When they reach the ages of 21 to 25, the stats show that that number falls to zero. Young women, though, are not disengaged—the girls here yesterday proved it—but they're not being made to feel heard, nor are they being given the opportunities and support to fight for the issues that they care about. We as leaders and representatives have the opportunity now to make it clear to the next generation that they are being listened to and welcomed in our democracy. We have the opportunity to break down those barriers and to help increase diversity within these walls. And we have to take this opportunity; otherwise, we risk missing out on an incredible group of young people from all different backgrounds and experiences with great ideas, great hopes and great dreams for Australia.

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