The result in the seat of Indi is final. Only in the last few weeks, as her 2016 campaign collapsed, has the topic of Sophie Mirabella not rekindled in me the upset and anxiety of the last decade. Rather the emotion was one of grudging compassion. With hindsight, the similarity in the unrelenting […]
Women’s Minister Tony helps myth-bust views on feminism, by @sarah_capper
March 21, 2014
By Sarah Capper @sarah_capper 14th February 2014 International Women’s Day, on 8 March every year, is that time of year when we are able to celebrate, pause and reflect. And sometimes gasp. In the political sphere, we had our Minister for Women, our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, declaring at an International Women’s Day event that having […]
Ordinary people speaking with an extraordinary voice @MargaretOConno5 reports
December 13, 2013
By Margaret O’Connor @MargaretOConno5 13 December 2013 It’s Monday December 2 and thirty degrees. The nation’s capital is sliding into a languorous warm late afternoon. I trundle into the Parliament House car park and try, with difficulty, to find a park, because northeast Victoria has come to town. Inside the House of Representatives Chamber, the […]
‘It’s our responsibility to be the last sentry at the gate’: Clive Palmer’s maiden speech
December 2, 2013
[clear] Madam speaker, Australians know who I am and where I come from. They know I love my family and I love Australia. In 1918 my father, at the age of nine, went to see a silent movie. By the time he was 14 he was producing and starring in his first movie. He went […]
Doing politics differently: @indigocathy maiden speech
December 2, 2013
Madam Speaker, Colleagues, special guests, friends and family. Madam Speaker, warm congratulations on your election. I thank you and my colleagues for your warm welcome. I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of this land, both past and present. Today I am going to share a story – about myself, about my electorate […]
To Zip or Not to Zip … And Other Tragedies
November 23, 2013
By Sarah Capper 23 November 2013 In announcing his resignation from parliament last week, it seemed quite fitting that former Prime Minister and Member for Griffith Kevin Rudd quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet – a tragedy about treachery and madness. Rudd referred to the “slings and arrows” suffered during his political career (and by his family in recent […]
An in-the-moment comment on the fall of our first female PM
June 27, 2013
by Margo Kingston 27 June 2013 [View the story “An in-the-moment comment on the fall of our first female PM” on Storify]
Sexism: I’ve had a gutful
June 17, 2013
by Fiona Armstrong June 17, 2013 Growing up in rural Queensland during the 70’s, I have been exposed to more than my fair share of sexism. This was the era of Joh Bjelke Peterson after all, and women were largely invisible in public and political life. Insulting women on the basis of gender was a national sport, […]
