Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today as Labor's first female Chief Government Whip to wish all the women in the House happy International Women's Day. I stand here proud to be Labor; proud to be a member of the Albanese Labor government, the first majority female government in Australia's history; proud to follow Julia Gillard as the first female Australian PM and the first female member for Lalor; proud of the Labor women who drove the change to equality in parliament and lead the change now; and proud of the Labor men who got it then and help drive it now. Together, we pursue and deliver for gender equality every day.

I note the unveiling of three statues in the nation this International Women's Day: those of Dorothy Tangney, Enid Lyons and, in Melbourne, Sharelle McMahon. And I call for more statues of women, and I say that we start in this place and call for a statue of the great JG, Julia Gillard, the 27th PM in this country, in the parliamentary precinct.