Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

26 September 2024 marks 30 years since the ALP adopted affirmative action quotas for women to be preselected as candidates in held and winnable seats. Today, half of the ALP members in parliaments across the nation are female, and I have the honour of sitting in the first federal government whose caucus is majority female.

I can remember when I entered Young Labor, around 1994, when these measures were introduced, and I spoke to women about the challenges that they faced. Politics is partly a meritocracy, but, in practice, barriers emerge for different groups of people, including but not limited to women. There is inertia where certain types of people get promoted or preselected because they are like people currently in positions of power. Challenging preconceptions can be exacerbated in politics, in particular, which is so based on long-lasting networks and cliques. It's a numbers game, and this can make it hard to break in to. Quotas were a way of helping to overcome these barriers, and they've worked.

At an individual level, it's given so many women a chance to serve in federal and state and territory governments, with so many firsts, including Julia Gillard but many others. Equally, at a systemic level, it's also improved the quality of decision-making and policy development by ensuring that the people introducing and debating the ideas and voting on the budgets and laws are more representative of our community. I'm pleased to speak today on this anniversary and to celebrate the contributions of my amazing female colleagues.