Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I want to pay tribute to Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, who've made an extraordinary address in the National Press Club. Their address demonstrated significant integrity and significant leadership, and this nation owes them a debt of gratitude for the work that they are doing to shine a light on cultural problems; to shine a light on violence, including sexual violence against women; and to shine a light on violence, including sexual violence against children.

I was struck by some language from Brittany Higgins when she said, 'If we truly want a gender inclusive society, we need more vocal women in rooms where key decisions are being made to ensure that there is a gender lens placed over national policy.' I agree: I think we need more women in parliament and I think we need more women in government. On that side of the chamber, women are so underrepresented that they only make up about one in five of this coalition in this House. I think that's a real shame because it's a missed opportunity to have more female voices in government.

We need more female voices in government because we need government policy, government decision-making, budgets and laws to better respond to the needs, the interests and the aspirations of Australian women. That will only happen once we have more women in politics in this country and everyone who wants to see cultural change, everyone who believes, as I do, that we need to see more women around decision-making tables, everyone who wants to see a better future for people of all genders in this country needs to make sure that in the future we have more women in parliament, we have more women in government. (Time expired)

See this speech in context