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The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
If old school white-anting Sussan Ley on gender quotas works, the Liberals may pay a heavy political price
A day after the Labor party first voted to implement gender quotas to promote the representation of women in federal politics, five female Liberal MPs condemned the decision in a statement. Labor's national conference in Hobart in September 1994 featured heated debate about rules requiring that women be preselected for 35% of winnable seats by 2002. At the time, blokes made up more than 85% of Labor's parliamentary ranks. The five women in then opposition leader Alexander Downer's shadow cabinet – Bronwyn Bishop, Jocelyn Newman, Amanda Vanstone, Judi Moylan and Chris Gallus – signed a statement saying quotas demeaned women and would further institutionalise their minority status in frontline politics. 'It is effectively a vote of no confidence in women's own abilities and it is a reverse form of discrimination,' it read. 'It only treats the symptoms, not the cause of the problem.' The statement came just a few weeks after Downer had apologised for making light of domestic violence, joking that the opposition's policy on women's safety would be titled 'the things that batter'. Fast forward 30 years and the Liberals, emphatically rejected by voters at the 3 May federal election, are asking why just six of their 28 lower house MPs in the new parliament will be women. In contrast, Labor will have 50. An assessment by the outgoing Liberal senator Linda Reynolds found the Liberals will have their lowest number of women in parliament since 1993, a year before Labor adopted its first quotas. Charged with picking up the election defeat pieces, the party's first female leader, Sussan Ley, this week promised to be a 'zealot' on actions to get more diversity in Liberal ranks, but said she was agnostic about the right approach to do so. Ley reminded journalists that her party works as a federated organisation, and power over preselection rules rests with state and territory branches. Ley's appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra was impressive. Ending Peter Dutton's three-year boycott of the club, Ley outlined two formal reviews into the dire political state of the Coalition, and said she wanted new processes for policy design. She has a compelling personal backstory and resisted any risky captain's calls on policy or symbolism – recognition of deep divisions within her party. Previous reviews, including after the 2022 loss to Labor, recommended the Liberal federal executive adopt a target of 50% female representation within 10 years or three parliamentary terms. The recommendations were all but ignored by state branches. Challenged over just how many seats the Coalition would need to win at the next election to prevent Anthony Albanese securing a third term for Labor, Ley said she was prepared to work hard and remained optimistic about the Liberal party's future. She showed a successful rebuilding effort could be part of her legacy, even if victory itself would prove too difficult in 2028. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Ley's unwillingness to take a position on the best mechanism to boost female representation meant the question quickly fell to other Liberals speaking in the media this week. The former prime minister Tony Abbott was quick out of the blocks. Despite finding just one woman with sufficient talent or aptitude to be appointed to his cabinet line-up in 2013, Abbott rejected quota systems because such a move would contravene 'the merit principle that should be at the heart of our party'. He described quotas as 'fundamentally illiberal'. On Friday, the senior conservative Angus Taylor spoke out against quotas, arguing they 'subvert democratic processes'. After promising to 'crusade' to get more Liberal women elected, Taylor's prescription was mentoring, recruitment and support of potential candidates and staff. He correctly said the Liberals also needed to do better at other measures of diversity, including recruiting more multicultural candidates. Taylor pointed to branch level plebiscites in the New South Wales Liberal party, but neglected to mention the feral factionalism and branch stacking which often helps push men to the top of candidate selection lists, especially in winnable seats. Not all Liberals are opposed, however. The former finance minister Simon Birmingham called for 'hard, fast and ambitious' quotas after the election drubbing and Maria Kovacic, the NSW senator, has acknowledged current settings aren't working. She has called for quotas as a short-term circuit breaker. Reynolds used an opinion piece in the Australian on Friday to warn the Liberals were becoming increasingly irrelevant due to declining voter support, suggesting the prospects of the party surviving to its 90th anniversary in 2034 were slim without action on gender. One Liberal MP rubbished Taylor and Abbott's contributions, accusing them of 'white anting' Ley. 'Ultimately their attempts to destabilise Sussan have come very early,' they told Guardian Australia. 'They want to rule over the rubble. It's sad.' A frontbencher warned against quotas becoming an 'all consuming' fight for the party, like the civil war under way in the Victorian state opposition. 'We don't want it to be the defining issue of this term,' they said. Perhaps the post-election review being led by party elders Nick Minchin and Pru Goward, or a separate structural assessment by the Queensland senator and experienced strategist James McGrath, will recommend quotas, but the usual rearguard action against them is already under way. The problem for those opposing a new system is that quotas are the only method shown to have worked. Labor stuck to its original rules until 2012, when it moved to a '40:40:20' quota system, designed to ensure at least 40% of Labor's seats were filled by women, and not fewer than 40% were filled by men. The remaining 20% were open to any candidate. New goals adopted in 2015 required the party to hit gender equity by 2025, a milestone it achieved early, hitting 53% after the 2022 election. The former party strategist turned pollster Tony Barry said it best this week, when he observed drastic changes in approach usually come when opposition MPs reach a point 'where they just cannot stand losing any more'. There is apparently some way to go in Canberra. Bronwyn Bishop, Amanda Vanstone and their colleagues were wrong in 1994 when they belittled action to give more women a seat at the decision-making table. How much longer ideological opposition to smart strategies persists might just determine how long Labor stays in power.
The Diplomat
a day ago
- Business
- The Diplomat
Achieving Australian Abundance
The central operating principle of Australia's current Labor Party government has been a 'whole-of-nation' approach to both national and foreign policy. The idea is that each sector of Australian society contributes to the country's overall capabilities, and each sector should see itself as part of a converging web of interrelated components that influence and affect one another. The key to effective statecraft is getting the fundamentals of a prosperous society right, and making sure these fundamentals are capable of adapting to changing circumstances. Urban planners may not recognize themselves as foreign policy actors, but if the most important capability Australia has is its human capital, then the environments that allow people to excel are imperative. This is the crossroads Australia currently finds itself at. Australia's present and future capabilities face two extraordinary hurdles. The first is the exorbitant cost of housing in the country – particularly in its major cities – and persistent impediments to boosting supply. The second is that Australian cities have urban rail networks that – due to irresponsible government neglect during the second half of the 20th century – are decades behind where they need to be for today's city populations, let alone projected future city growth. Combined, these two problems inhibit the flourishing of individual Australians, and the flourishing of the country's most economically productive urban centers. The result is a stifled country that is unable to fully unlock its potential, and therefore unable to navigate an increasingly complex and unstable world with confidence and sophistication. In recent interviews, Australia's treasurer, Jim Chalmers, recognized that this is a problem, and has begun discussing the Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson book, 'Abundance.' Or, as the kids say, Chalmers has been 'Abundance-pilled.' The central thesis of Klein and Thompson's book is that a dense web of regulations, processes, consultations, and reviews are getting in the way of producing outcomes that should be deemed 'progress.' They argue that in the United States – but this is also true of Australia – it is becoming to difficult and inefficient to build the things that are necessary for thriving societies. Or, as Chalmers has said, 'We want good things to happen, we've got to stop strangling good things from happening.' Yet in order to seriously address this problem, there is a major structural issue that needs to be both acknowledged and dealt with. Australia has one of the highest rates of tertiary education in the world. This is an absolute positive, and education should never be discouraged. But the unintended consequence of the rise of widespread tertiary education has been the lack of productive outlets, well-paid, or status-providing jobs for university graduates in the private sector. As a result, the state has felt the need to absorb this cohort into the bureaucracy. This has created a larger class of rule-makers and consultants, making rules and seeking rents for a greater array of aspects of life. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) there are now almost 1 million people working within Australia's various bureaucracies (state and federal), with an addition of 50,000 people in the last year alone. This is not a positive trajectory, but given the difficulty in actually reducing the size of the bureaucracy – especially in a city like Canberra, where government is the industry – the solution Chalmers and the rest of the Cabinet (as well as their state counterparts) may have to tackle is one of culture. For this, the government would need to find a way to shift the culture of the bureaucracy to see its personal rewards not in the administration of a web of complex rules, but in the production of efficient and effective outcomes. That is, a way of making pride flow from green lights, not red. Being able to unlock both a new vast supply of housing stock, and a great expansion of public works, is fundamental to addressing Australia's dire cost of living, but also addressing the country's major capability deficit in its lack of economic complexity. Affordable housing is essential for people to be able to take economic risks, and creativity thrives in urban centers with dense public transport networks. Therefore shifting the culture of the bureaucracy to have a laser-like focus on efficient outcomes also should create the conditions for tertiary educated Australians to find well-paid and high status jobs in the private sector – or create these jobs themselves. This would weaken the need for the state to absorb these highly educated people itself, and subsequently weaken some of the mechanisms that inhibit Australia's abundance.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labor must protect environment while rewriting laws ‘written to facilitate development', Larissa Waters says
Greens leader Larissa Waters warns Labor's rewrite of national environmental laws will not be credible if the government uses its planned 18-month timeline to continue to approve new coal and gas projects or allow continued habitat destruction. Labor's proposal to create a federal environment protection agency collapsed in the final months of the last parliament. A deal with the Greens was being negotiated by the then environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, but Anthony Albanese pushed the changes off the agenda, fearing an electoral backlash in Western Australia. The newly appointed minister, Murray Watt, says Labor's 3 May victory gives the government a 'very clear mandate' to pass the so-called nature positive laws, which he says should be finalised and passed by parliament within 18 months. That progress will require support from the Greens, which hold the sole balance of power in the Senate. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Waters said Labor needed to do a 'proper job' in redesigning the Howard-era rules and to ensure they were not pushed down the political agenda ahead of the next election. 'They were always written to facilitate development and not to protect the environment. I say that in all honesty,' Waters said. 'What they are now very clearly weak on is meeting the challenges that we're facing. 'They don't have any reference to climate in them. Now that's just ridiculous, to have environmental laws that don't require explicit consideration of the climate.' Waters called for Labor to stop approvals for new mines, describing the post-election extension of Woodside's huge North West Shelf development out to 2070 as 'a massive, dirty gas bomb'. 'They do need a drastic rewrite. With the 18-month delay that the minister has now said, I take two messages out of that. 'Because I'm an optimist … maybe they can now take the time to do a proper job. 'But the other message I take is that this is not a priority for them. And I'm also worried that in that 18-month delay, that so much destruction will just continue. Things will just get ticked off while they're reviewing the laws – how convenient – and it's a smokescreen to just continue on business as usual.' The Queensland senator, who replaced former Greens leader Adam Bandt, made the comments in an interview for Guardian Australia's Australian Politics podcast, released on Friday. The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) has been lobbying the Greens on Labor's plans to make some superannuation tax concessions less generous for account holders with balances above $3m. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the government is pressing on with the delayed changes and is expected to negotiate with Greens' treasury spokesperson, Nick McKim. The NFF chief executive, Troy Williams, recently wrote to Waters warning the proposal risks serious unintended consequences for family farming businesses, which often rely on superannuation for intergenerational succession planning. 'We would plead with you to use upcoming negotiations in the Senate to push for sensible changes to this tax to mitigate the unintended consequences for family-owned farms,' Williams said in a letter provided to Guardian Australia. 'This could include grandfathering existing arrangements, excluding agricultural land from valuations, taxing gains on realisation, and of course indexation.' The Greens have promised constructive negotiations and expressed concern retirement savings accounts are being used as vehicles for wealth accumulation. Waters told Guardian Australia the party would consider Labor's final proposal carefully. 'We will support tax changes that make the tax system fairer and I will be having those discussions with Mr Chalmers as the weeks roll on,' she said. 'I think we'll keep those discussions private.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Katy Perry calls out South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas as 'some guy' as he sits in the crowd at her Adelaide concert
Katy Perry has shouted out an Aussie politician as she took to the stage on Thursday night for her Adelaide gig. The American singer kicked off the South Australian leg of her Lifetimes tour and admitted on stage that she'd made a 'mistake' in initially skipping the city on her gig roster. 'I was silly, I was foolish when Adelaide was left off the docket for the Lifetimes Tour,' she said from the stage. Katy added that she was approached at the AFL grand final last year by 'some guy' who told her, 'You've gotta come to Adelaide'. The 'guy' in question is South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, Adelaide Now reported - and it turns out the Premier was in the audience. The comment didn't go unnoticed by the locals with one person writing on social media, 'Katy Perry taking 5 minutes to campaign for the labor premier in Adelaide.' It comes after Katy went viral after dramatically knocking a fan's Labubu toy out of their hand during her Lifetimes tour in Australia. The American pop star, 39, was captured on TikTok marching towards fans mid-song while carrying a tray of Tim Tams during a performance of her emotional ballad, I'm Still Breathing. As she made her way along the crowd barrier, a fan held out a collectible Labubu toy box - a popular figure from Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung's The Monsters series. Katy quickly took notice, locked eyes with the toy, then abruptly swatted it out of the fan's hand with her microphone. 'I'm still - NO LABUBUS!' she belted theatrically, before crouching down to hand out Tim Tams to the crowd, urging them to use 'gentle hands.' The moment has since gone viral and racked up more than 157,000 views and sparked wild reactions online. The fan who had the toy even surfaced in the comments, writing: 'omg this is the Labubu she slapped.' The 'guy' in question is South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas (pictured) - and it turns out the Premier was in the audience One user joked: 'The way I would've caught that like Robbie Rotten with a net.' Unbothered by the stir, Katy herself chimed in on the viral clip, leaving a cheeky comment featuring three devil emojis. While it's unclear why she appears to have beef with the cult figurine, the Labubu craze has polarised collectors and fans The character - a furry, big-eyed creature - originates from a storybook by Kasing Lung and has become a global sensation thanks to collectible blind boxes by Pop Mart. Its popularity has exploded in recent years, with scalpers cashing in and prices soaring, much to the frustration of some fans. 'Honestly, One Of The Boys-era Katy would've frothed on Labubus,' joked another viewer, referencing her 2008 debut. Katy had shows in Perth, Australia on June 22 and 23, followed by a concert on June 26 in Adelaide. She first announced the Australian tour in September 2024, and though it did not initially include the 23 and 26 dates, they were added within the following weeks.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
NSW politicians say cannabis decriminalisation inevitable after report points to unequal system
NSW government members have suggested cannabis reform is inevitable in the state after a parliamentary inquiry found the current regime is discriminatory, because people with means can obtain medicinal cannabis legally, while others are criminalised. The NSW upper house inquiry released its landmark report into the effectiveness of cannabis regulation last week. The recommendations to decriminalise and consider legalisation were backed by six of the seven committee members – including Labor, Liberal and crossbench legislative council members. One Liberal member voted against the recommendations. The committee – chaired by the Legalise Cannabis party MLC Jeremy Buckingham – recommended the Minns government immediately axe the maximum two-year custodial sentence for people found with a small quantity of marijuana and instead replace it with a fine. Then, after a review of decriminalisation, the report said NSW should: 'Engage in a staged process of reform and review and consider legislating to legalise the use of cannabis by adults in a manner that eliminates the illicit market so far as is possible and creates a safe, regulated and accessible statewide market for legal cannabis'. The Labor MLCs Stephen Lawrence and Cameron Murphy, who were part of the committee, said decriminalisation and potential legalisation of cannabis was inevitable because all MLCs bar one voted for the recommendation. Lawrence, who moved for the recommendations to be included in the report, said the cross-party support showed 'the community has moved on from some kind of shock-horror reaction to cannabis'. 'The evidence in the inquiry shows the advantaged have designed a system where they are allowed to smoke their easily obtained medicinal cannabis, often for recreational purposes, while we punish the rest sometimes harshly,' the Labor MLC told Guardian Australia. 'The only question is how soon Australian governments actually lead on the issue, not if. 'The report offers a pathway that can be careful, gradual and bipartisan.' The premier, Chris Minns, spoke in favour of legalising cannabis in 2019 while in opposition but has backpedalled since winning office, saying the government doesn't have a mandate to do so and it is not on Labor's agenda. A spokesperson for the attorney general this week said the government was considering the report's recommendations. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The committee found while the widespread availability of medicinal cannabis in NSW via a prescription from a GP was welcome, it was facilitating widespread 'non-medicinal' use of cannabis. 'This highlights the inequitable and arbitrary nature of the current criminalisation of cannabis, whereby the criminal status of a person now depends on their capacity to obtain a prescription from a doctor,' the report stated. The inquiry found that irrespective of the merits of decriminalisation and legalisation, the maximum two-year prison penalty for being found in possession of a small quantity of marijuana was 'absurd, draconian and antiquated'. 'This degree of criminalisation, which has persisted for many decades, is irrational and an affront to the community's sense of justice and can be remedied by the parliament in a way consistent with the policy position of the government.' The committee found the presence of cannabis in a person's system did not necessarily indicate a person was impaired. The report stated that criminal regulation of cannabis had not achieved its aim of reducing use, and that decriminalisation in other jurisdictions had not led to a material increase in use. Murphy told Guardian Australia the 'two-tier' justice system when it came to cannabis use was of significant concern. 'I believe there is widespread community support, reflected in the committee, to remove personal use quantity cannabis possession offences from the criminal law,' he said.
