Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

26 September marks 30 years since the Australian Labor Party adopted affirmative action quotas for women to be preselected as candidates in held and winnable seats. I'm very pleased to be standing here as part of a majority female government caucus. Every quota and target since their adoption by the party has been met. In 1994, the ALP National Conference set a quota of 35 per cent female candidates by 2002. The caucus was made up of 35 per cent women following the 2004 election. In 2002, this was lifted to 40 per cent by 2012, and we hit that in the 2013 election. In 2015, the ALP National Conference adopted a target of 50 per cent women MPs and senators by 2025, and this was achieved at the 2022 election. The federal caucus is currently around 53 per cent female, and across the parliaments of Australia 50.2 per cent of all Labor elected members of parliament are women. We look like the communities that we represent.

This stands in contrast to the parties that form the coalition, with the Liberals at 33.2 per cent, the Nationals at 33.3 per cent and the Leader of the Opposition's own party, the LNP, at just 17.6 per cent. Indeed, the Liberal Party, in the 47th parliament, have recorded their lowest female representation in parliament since 1993, and it's gone backwards since 2015, when they set a target of 50 per cent female representation. I think it's telling and, frankly, sad that no members of those parties opposite chose to speak on this important matter today. I hope that they're sitting in their offices—

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