Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Ministers statements: gender equality

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:06): At 10 o’clock this morning the declaration of the poll occurred for the seat of Mulgrave, endorsing the election of Eden Foster to this place. Now, not only is this a good result for the Labor Party, it is a great result for gender parity here in the state of Victoria. With Eden Foster’s election as the member for Mulgrave, for the very first time the Victorian Parliament has reached an equal number of men and women in both houses of Parliament. This is a historic moment, and it is a moment that is worth remembering and recording. We are also leading the nation – we are the only state Parliament to have this equality in our ranks. We are leading the federal Parliament, the South Australian Parliament, the Queensland Parliament and we are also leading the world, with very few Parliaments around the globe reaching this sort of gender parity.

I am very proud to say that those of us on the Labor side have led the way, with 55 per cent of our Labor caucus being women. Two-thirds of the members that I sit around the cabinet table with are women. What this means is that not only does the Parliament better reflect the community we are elected to serve, but it also is making a difference – a better difference – to the policies and projects and discussions we have as a government. There are so many examples: free kinder, expanding kinder, putting pads and tampons in schools and then rolling them out to public spaces, the focus on women’s health, just to name a few. They are the sorts of examples of where we are a better government from representing the community that we serve. We are proud of the work that we have done. We know that there is more work to do across the Parliament. We have more women on our front bench than those opposite do in their entire party room. It is a joint effort, and I am very proud on this historic occasion.