The Australian Women Premiers, Chief Ministers and Opposition Leaders: A Retrospective

[b_auspol]

A lot of hay has been made over the past few weeks over the Annastacia Palaszczuk (ALP) v Deb Frecklington (LNP) election being the first time an Australian State Government has had two women go head to head, and what that means for the country.

This is technically true but unfair to the ACT and NT, as our two main Territories have been carrying a lot of the effort at increasing women in leadership positions over the past 31 years. The election of Rosemary Follett as the first Chief Minister for ACT in 1989 started a trend that had resulted in at least one woman holding leadership of a State or Territory each year since then.

This is the second time the country has seen an election at this level with two women contesting the leadership role, with the first being the 1995 ACT Territory Election, where Rosemary Follett (ALP) and Kate Carnell (Lib) faced off for leadership, with Carnell winning that election.

There have only been three gaps in female leadership at State and Territory level since 1989, for a total of 447 days, where women have not held ANY of the leadership positions (and held opposition leadership during these periods): December to February in 1989/90 and 2014/15, and an extended period from October 2000 to August 2001.

In addition, last Tuesday, 27 October 2020, the combined Australian States and Territories passed another quiet invisible barrier – 50% of the positions of Premier, Chief Minister and Opposition Leader were held by women. This has been part of a gradual increase in positions over time.

•  NSW and QLD are both led by women: Annastacia Palaszczuk (ALP) in QLD and Gladys Berejiklian (Lib) in NSW.
• Both of their Opposition Leaders are women: Deb Frecklington (LNP) in QLD and Jodi McKay (ALP) in NSW.
• There are a further 4 female Opposition Leaders: Rebecca White (ALP) in TAS, Liza Harvey (Lib) in WA, Lia Finocchario (Lib) in NT and Elizabeth Lee (Lib) in the ACT.

Only Victoria and South Australia currently have no women leading the major parties, and only South Australia has never had a female Premier. Victoria has not had a female leader since Joan Kirner resigned in 1993.

Now, from this very rough visual, you can see the effect of various country trends over time. The Howard Years line up with a decrease in female leadership, which only truly began to recover with Anna Bligh (QLD ALP) assuming leadership in 2007. Before that, ACT and NT were doing the heavy lifting in maintaining women leaders, alongside Kerry Chikarovski’s (Lib) long stint in opposition in NSW. There is probably a lot of analysis to be done on the Liberal tradition of sticking a female caretaker Opposition Leader into government, but at this point I’ll simply note: while the ALP has definitely been the initiators and leaders of appointing women as leaders in most states, and no state or territory has had a Liberal female Premier or Chief Minister prior to having a Labor one, there are currently more women in leadership positions across the Liberal Party at state level than there are for Labor.

The Queensland State Election is a historic moment for Australia. But the equalising of female leadership at State and Territory level is equally historic. The next goal should be trying for 4 women as Premier or Chief Minister simultaneously.

(And for South Australia, cradle of women's voting rights in Australia, to sort itself out and join in the program!)