Fair Agenda

In any discussion about the lack of women in Cabinet – and the countless other decision-making forums where women remain under-represented – someone will almost always cite “merit” as the reason we don’t see as many women at the table. But the reality is, whatever your politics, it’s hard to argue that the women our Prime Minister would describe as “knocking on the door” are anything short of accomplished and impressive.

As murmurs of impending Cabinet reshuffles continue - can you help us push the conversation beyond "merit" by sharing these articles about women and Cabinet?

• We’ve been working with our friends at Women’s Agenda to profile some of the women who could be in Cabinet. Click here to read and share the profiles.
  
  Included are Ministers, Assistant Ministers and a Parliamentary Secretary currently serving in the Government – those considered most likely to be promoted into Cabinet. As well as being accomplished politicians, these women have led international delegations to observe presidential elections, worked as commercial pilots and solicitors, run farms, and been appointed a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

• Click here to read and share yesterday’s Canberra Times piece from Fair Agenda ambassador and peace and security expert Dr Susan Harris-Rimmer calling for more women in Cabinet.
  
  She says: “Diversity is worth pursuing as a democratic value, and to aid better decision-making. Cabinet needs a reshuffle and there does not seem a single good reason why the door should not be opened to more women.”

• Click here to read and share this piece by Fair Agenda ambassador and leadership & adaptive change expert Liz Skelton about the importance of diversity for good decision making.
  
  She says: “Best practice leadership theory tells us that adaptation and innovation only occur when we can harness diversity of thinking and bring ideas together to create something new."

Can you help spread the word about the importance of ensuring the next cabinet reshuffle includes women? Not just because half the population deserve to be better represented in this key decision making forum; but also because diversity is critical to good decision making, and good democracy.

On reproductive rights

It’s easy to think the fight for reproductive rights is over – but tomorrow Victoria could elect anti-choice candidates to key upper and lower house seats – and set the scene for further attacks on our world-class abortion laws.

Because votes on abortion issues are generally put to personal, rather than party votes – finding out where your local candidates stand on this issue is critical. That’s why Fair Agenda members and partners have done the hard work for you – surveying hundreds of candidates to find out whether they would vote to protect your reproductive rights. 

You can find their responses, and critical information on anti-choice parties, at: http://www.fairagenda.org/wheredotheystand

Here's what we know: across the marginal seat races, only 16 of the 57 lead candidates have told Fair Agenda they're committed to voting to protect reproductive rights. And in the upper house, there’s a chance that preference flows could see the DLP and Rise Up Australia - who have clear anti-choice agendas - pick up key seats, and the balance of power, in our next parliament. Make sure your vote won't support attacks on abortion laws - find out where your local candidates stand before you vote: http://www.fairagenda.org/wheredotheystand 

On family Violence

Fair Agenda has worked with family violence experts from across the state to find out where the parties stand on the actions the experts say are required to save lives. 

You can see the ratings the experts have given to the four parties who responded to our policy survey at: http://www.fairagenda.org/family_violence_scorecard and below:

Can you help share this information with your friends? 

 Authorised by Renee Carr, Fair Agenda, Level 1, 160 Clarence St, Sydney, NSW 2000

1) Sports Party candidate questioned on inappropriate facebook content

After more than 450 Fair Agenda members took action in our Sports Party campaign, the story got picked up by 6 different news outlets, including: the ABC, Daily Life and Triple J news.

Then, lead candidate Wayne Dropulich was asked in an interview with Radio National to explain why he thought that their actions were appropriate. You can hear the highlights from that interview in this recording, from 16:00.

2) 'Where do the parties stand?' scorecard shared with 2,000 people before the election

Off the back of the Sports Party’s facebook post, Fair Agenda asked representatives from the parties running in the WA election to declare their positions on the key issues that matter most to Fair Agenda members. We asked where they'd stand on specific questions we expect the new Senate will be required to vote on.

Thanks to pressure from Fair Agenda members, we were able to secure responses from 9 of the candidates.

We presented their responses in a scorecard that was shared with more than 2,000 people on Facebook. You can see the scorecard, and the parties’ extended responses, here.

We’ve tallied the results, and are excited to share our members top three priorities for 2014. They are:

1) Representation of women: particularly the presence of women in decision making roles in politics and business, as well as in media and sports coverage.

2) Reducing violence

3) Pay equality: economic inequality and issues affecting women in the workplace were raised across most Agenda Setters, with pay equality coming out as the top priority. 

4) Reproductive rights

5) Sexism

Of course, just because an issue isn’t included in this list, doesn’t mean that we won’t campaign on it. Dozens of really important issues were raised across the Agenda Setters. We've reflected on all of these to help get a full picture of what matters to our supporters, and we'll use this information to help us assess and shape our campaigns moving forward.

Our list of member priorities will be used, alongside advice from policy experts, to shape where we focus our campaign resources in 2014. 

Thanks so much for sharing your priorities with us. We can't wait to start campaigning on these important issues!