Who Women Should Vote for in the Australian Federal Election 2013

I'm probably the least qualified person to direct anyone's voting choices, never mind the fact that doing so would be just a little undemocratic... so of course I'm not actually going to tell you who to vote for.

But in creating Girl Talk and thinking about women's issues in the world and in Australia, I thought this year would be a good year to actually start brushing up on my politics.

Normally I'm just glad I don't have to make all the policies and decisions, and that's as far as my thoughts on politics go. But I started to think, that being glad I don't make the big decisions should actually motivate me to choose someone who I think will do it responsibly on my behalf.

But where to start? I didn't even know which party would most closely match my own political views, let alone how to find their positions and policies and make a choice.

So if you're a woman and wondering how to make your vote count for something this Federal Election (September 7th 2013), then here are some resources you might find helpful.

• The National Foundation for Australian Women has very helpfully compared a range of policies (childcare, leave, human rights, violence, health etc.) with a view to how they impact women. Go Here to have a look at the results. (They look at the main parties - Labour, Coalition, Greens).

• Women Vote.org has a list of resources to help you clarify and assess your own political views and help you find parties and politicians who think similarly.

• Family Voice Australia outlines responses from a range of parties to a few key questions - not specifically related to women, but things that affect families plus others.

So hopefully that might help make it a little less confusing for you, if you're wondering how to get a handle on policies and how to decide who to vote for.



A few other facts of interest:

- 30% is widely regarded as 'critical mass' - the percentage of representation for equal participation.

- As of 1st Jan 2012, NSW had the least female representation in Parliament - just 25.2% over both houses. Followed closely by SA with 27.5 %

- From 1987 - 2010 The Greens have consistently had the highest percentage of female candidates for the senate of all the major parties. In 2010 it was at 71.4%!

- From 1943 - 2011, the Labor Party has had the highest number of women elected to the senate.

- South Australia led the country in 1894 when women won the right to vote and sit in Parliament.

- There have been no Indigenous women elected to the Commonwealth Parliament since Federation in 1901. (Indigenous women are under-represented in all state and territory parliaments. Carol Martin was elected to the Western Australian Parliament on 10 February 2001, becoming the first Indigenous woman to be elected to any Australian parliament.)

UPDATE: Nova Peris, first indigenous woman to be elected to the Senate, 2013.


(Source: aph.gov.au)