EMILY’S LIST ASKS ALP TO EXPLAIN DROPPING WOMEN FROM SAFE SEAT PRESELECTIONS

ALP NATIONAL EXECUTIVE TO “PLEASE EXPLAIN” ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

EMILY’s List has today called on the National Executive to explain how it will go about ensuring the ALP will meet its Affirmative Action target, in light of its interventions in key NSW seats yesterday leading to only 33% of women being preselected in winnable Federal seats.

“Previous National Conferences gave the National Executive the Affirmative Action police role and the latest Conference gave it the so-called “renewal” police role. However, in yesterday’s meeting it failed to balance those roles with the results directly contravening ALP’s Former Rule 12 to pre-select women for 35% of winnable seats”, said Hutch Hussein, EMILY’s List National Co-Convenor.

Rule 12 stipulates that at least 35% of candidates pre-selected for relevant seats must be women, while the current Rule 10 stipulates that from 2012 at least 40% of all candidates pre-selected must be women. The rule also stipulates that the National Executive has the power and responsibility to enforce these rules. “With the pre-selection of 5 men and 1 woman finalised by the National Executive yesterday, this leaves only 24 women pre-selected from the 75 seats relevant to the count of ‘relevant seats’ for the purpose of this Rule – translating into 32%, a decrease from Labor’s 35% figure from the 2004 pre-selections. Whilst EMILY’s List supports a renewal process, we don’t think it should at the expense of utilising the full talent pool at hand, which ensures that you are putting forward the best candidates. We need a “Please Explain” from the National Executive on this,” said Ms Hussein.

 HoR Relevant seats*    Men               Women

2004  75                  65.33%             34.67%

2007  75                  50  (67%)        25  (33%)

“With the introduction of the Affirmative Action target, the ALP acknowledged that women continue to be under-represented in public life, and took an important step towards redressing the structural barriers which limit women’s participation. This latest decision presents the potential for the ALP to go backwards. We have come a long way in the last ten years in ensuring that the Parliament adequately represents the diversity of the community – with ALP women increasing from 4 women in the 1996 House of Representatives to 20 women by 2004 (a 400% increase). I

t would be detrimental for the Party to tarnish its outstanding record in promoting the representation of women at all levels of decision making by making a backwards step with regards to the representation of women”, said Ms Hussein. “Whilst we are doing better than either of the Coalition parties in having an equitable party due to our Affirmative Action target, we seek a commitment from the National Executive that, in light of their decisions yesterday, that former Rule 12 will be enforced to demonstrate the Party’s commitment to the target,” said Ms Hussein.

*Relevant seats are those required to form government, including held seats, or in the case of the Senate, half the seats to be elected.