Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on the Chief Government Whip's motion in this place, because it is an important motion. This place needs to reflect the diversity, the wonderful mixture that is Australian society. But, more than that, this place should be a beacon of equality and opportunity. The Labor Party has made decisions over the last decades to ensure that we achieve that, and obviously we have more work to do. But I also want to say this: as a male member of the Labor Party it is important that we are also a part of ensuring that institutions like the Labor Party have opportunities and are seeking talent from all different corners of our society, because if we do not have the inherent structures like quota systems then what will happen is the inherent biases that live within each of us will rise to the top.

We all look for ourselves in representation. We all look for ourselves to try and pursue all of the opportunities in this place and in different institutions. But the Labor Party has made a different choice thanks to the strong and fierce women that have made up the leadership of our party and that make up the rank and file of our party as well. They said that we can't just look like we have done for the last 100 years; we need to look in new places and we need to ensure that women are better represented and are a part of the decision-making of our party. We know what it looks like if we don't do that. If we don't create the opportunities and the quotas and the structures where we actually seek out and lift the talent and provide opportunity, and find talented, smart and fierce women to be a part of our structures, what does that look like? It looks like the modern Liberal Party. Not one Liberal Party member is speaking on this motion. And, despite the fact that there are smart, talented Liberal women who should be promoted, each and every time, there are inherent biases that the preselectors of the Liberal Party choose to hold onto as opposed to ensuring that there is a quota system of women. I know that there are Liberal Party women who are pushing for change. I think that that is an important thing, and it mustn't be an easy task.

It is a fact that quotas not only work but remove the ability to apply those inherent biases that, frankly, the blokes of the Labor Party were looking at for too long. They ensure that people are given opportunity when they should be. People like to talk about merit. I am proud of the merit that we have on this side. We have such fierce, smart, strong and articulate colleagues who are representing their communities and fighting for policies that make our country stronger. The fact that we have set targets to achieve gender equity makes our party stronger. It makes our party stronger because we see more of what the Australian people need. We, as the Labor Party, are not at our best if we have big blind spots. How can you seek to represent the population if half your representatives do not reflect that? How can we seek opportunity for the Australian people and for Australian women if we are not even willing to provide opportunities to Labor women to rise through the ranks and become senior members of our party? But that is not the choice that we made. It isn't just because of these quota systems that that has happened; it is because of the tireless effort of strong, fierce and smart Labor women over decades and of party structures committed to the promotion and the equity that we seek for Labor women and for all women in this country.

That is why I am proud to stand alongside a caucus where over half of us are women representing over half the population. That is how it should be, because we cannot be what we cannot see. Without that we cannot be the party that is there to promote things and policies like ensuring that women are able to return to the workforce or that their pay is on an equitable basis to that of men. We have to be better than that, and where it starts is in our own backyard. Affirmative action works. We are proud of our equity, and I'm proud to be a member of a party that has promoted so many amazing women.

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