The gender agenda
Photo: Chriscoveries
Nicolle Flint MP and Gemma Tognini led an MRC conversation at an event focusing on the current policy debate around gender issues. Read their opening remarks.
Nicolle Flint
Good evening everyone and thank you so much for joining us.
I would like to start by acknowledging the Chairman of the MRC Paul Espie and Board Member Mitch Hooke. Current MPs Melanie Gibbons and Lucy Wicks, former MPs Fiona Scott and Robyn Palmer, President of Women’s Council Mary-Lou Jarvis and NSW Liberal Party Vice President Penny George.
Most especially I want to acknowledge the Director of the MRC Nick Cater, without whom I would not be here this evening. Nick was one of several men who supported me along my journey to become the Member for Boothby.
We co-authored the three MRC Gender and Politics reports about women in the Liberal Party, and Nick has always supported and encouraged me on my rather ‘interesting’ political journey.
I should note that I came dressed especially for you, our wonderful audience this evening, in the exact outfit that ABC Radio’s Peter Goers criticised me for wearing; black stiletto heels, tight black pants that show my ankles (I thought it was 2021, not 1821), a coloured jacket, pearl earrings and, of course, my pearly smile!
I think I look neat and well-presented, and I take a lot of time to make sure I do every day out of respect to my community, and to the federal Parliament, and ultimately out of respect for the Australian people.
Which is why I was so angry and frustrated when I was criticised for looking like this, and why I wore a garbage bag to respond to Mr Goers’ rubbish views.
And while my garbage bag video went viral, and attracted international attention, the ultimate point was a crucially important one; stop judging women on their appearance. Stop judging women for being women. Start judging us on our actions, what we stand for, what we do; not what we look like!
Since that video, so much more has happened in and around federal Parliament and our society that has finally and properly brought women’s issues to the forefront of current policy debate.
So it could not be more timely to discuss “The Gender Agenda”.
There are so many layers to this issue, that I look forward to discussing with you this evening.
They include most importantly, women’s safety in public life, and in our community. As you probably all know I am leaving Parliament because I have not felt safe since the 2019 election thanks to the actions of GetUp, Labor, the Unions, Extinction Rebellion and certain individuals in my local community. This must change. All women deserve to feel safe and to be safe.
I have thought extensively about this issue, and my experience and the terrible revelations from federal Parliament and it is my belief that if we actually get back to basics on this issue, it comes down to one thing; respect.
If people behave respectfully, online, in person, in Parliament we would not have the issues that we do.
We as Liberals also need to consider how we can improve the representation of Liberal women in Parliaments around Australia. Nick Cater and I have been arguing for a long time that we need to implement the recommendations in our report - targets, growing the Young Liberal female membership and holding the divisions to account for actually achieving change in these areas. We should always select the best person for the job, irrespective of their gender. This won’t always be a man, but it might not always be a woman, either.
We need to have the discussion about quotas; I do not believe in them, I do not support them, I believe they are the blunt tool of the authoritarian left, but let’s have the discussion. We are the Liberal Party, we are the party of freedom of speech and ideas, so let’s talk about whether they might be the solution.
The member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski, and I, are working on a paper for the MRC exploring whether creating a ‘list’ system like the conservatives in the UK would help create the change we need to get not just more women, but people from different ethnic backgrounds, and a greater array of industries or professions. This is ‘true’ diversity and it is what will keep us strong as a party and in touch with the people of Australia. We currently do this better than Labor, but we can always improve.
Finally, we also need to stand up for ourselves as Liberals against the ongoing attacks from Labor and many sections of the media who seek to blame all the current problems relating to women on us, who seek to relentlessly attack our women like Peta Credlin, and Senator Amanda Stoker. Labor are just as culpable, Labor have just as many problems with women - as their treatment of me in the 2019 campaign demonstrated. We must hold them to account.
After all, it is up to all elected representatives, all members of our community, to work together to fix this.
I look forward to discussing all of this and more this evening, thank you so much for joining us.
Gemma Tognini
Amongst my earliest memories is one of my Nonno, standing at the kitchen sink. Tea-towel slung over one shoulder, doing the dishes after having cooked me lunch.
Of us waiting at the door for my Nonna to get home from work. They both worked.
My mother, after my brother and I had both reached high-school went back to work. She quit her job the year she turned 50 and started her own small business. Which she still runs today, aged 73.
Growing up, I didn’t know a paradigm in which women and men did not enjoy the same degree of self-determination in their professional lives.
I was told I could be anything I wanted, the only thing I was forbidden from being was lazy; half-assed as my dad used to say.
I have never been afraid to ask for help. What’s the worst that can happen? Someone says no. That has never bothered me. I have never hesitated to ask for help. That’s perhaps part of my upbringing, part of how I’m naturally programmed.
I realise these experiences have formed my views and I come to this discussion tonight somewhat challenged in my thinking – which is a good place to be.
I believe in promotion based on merit – but, having said that – what is merit? What if the notion of merit is a big fat fig-leaf covering up nepotism, cronyism, bias and poor management? Why isn’t merit better defined?
I believe in equality of opportunity, not of outcome. BUT – what if women are excluded from opportunity in the first place, because of the fact they’re women? You might think that a nonsense in 2021 but women in my mother’s generation were excluded from many things – career, higher education – because they were women. Not legally of course, but that’s my point.
What we’re here to talk about tonight isn’t about legislation. It is already illegal in Australia to discriminate on the basis of gender. It’s not about more laws, tighter laws.
It may or may not be about quotas. Are they necessary but not sufficient? Or are they sufficient, but not necessary? I am and I’m not being deliberately provocative because I want a better level of conversation.
This is a conversation about values and culture. About the unwritten and the unspoken. How we bring a tangible solution to an intangible roadblock.
As conservatives, we interfere in things all the time to improve outcomes. Markets, the economy, you name it so, why not this?
Say quota, and I bristle. I find it offensive to my blood, sweat and tears. I don’t want to be in any role, of any description as the consolation prize or the token uterus at the table. So, if it isn’t quotas (and personally, I don’t think it should be) then it is up to us to make a way in the wilderness, that reflects our liberal values, and addresses the disconnect that is undeniably still in place.
I am ready for a robust conversation.
One that is constructive, not factional, not emotional – and importantly, open minded.
Nicolle Flint is the federal Liberal member for Boothby in South Australia. Gemma Tognini is Executive Director at GT Communications.
“The Gender Agenda - A conversation with Nicolle Flint MP and Gemma Tognini” was held in Sydney on Wednesday 07 April .