Women in Parliament

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. In 1994 I attended Carmen Lawrence's election night party. She was elected as the federal member for Fremantle. My dad told me to get her autograph. 'She will be the first woman to be Prime Minister of Australia,' he said. Dad was wrong, but I was very lucky to grow up in a family that saw women as political leaders. Ruby lives in such a family too. Labor has done our bit in this parliament, but we need to see that leadership everywhere, including in our community.

Western Australia has the proudest history of women leading in our parliaments across the nation: the first woman elected to parliament, Edith Cowan, represented West Perth in my electorate; the first woman in the Senate was Dorothy Tangney, who lived in North Perth; the first woman of cabinet rank was Florence Cardell-Oliver; the first woman premier was Carmen Lawrence; and Ruby Hutchison was the first woman in the WA Legislative Council, representing Bayswater, Maylands and Mount Lawley, which are in the Perth electorate. Ruby Hutchison was the only woman to serve in the Legislative Council for the entire 17 years that she served in that parliament. Hopefully by the time this Ruby is an adult, there are no more firsts to be had. But we do need to celebrate these women. We need public statues and public monuments in the Perth CBD recognising these women. It's time that they be built. It is well and truly past time they are built. We need local, state and federal governments to come together and get it done.