NSW Labor hides its agenda for women
By Amanda Mitchell
Sixty-five women from the Bligh electorate attended a public meeting on February 18 in the Woolloomooloo public housing estate to hear Pam Allen, NSW shadow spokesperson on women's affairs, and Susan Harben, Labor candidate for Bligh.
Harben has gained publicity from her candidacy as "the first open lesbian to stand for parliament." Harben hopes to gain the seat from the incumbent populist independent, Clover Moore, who claims a great deal of her support from gay men in Bligh.
Although the meeting was heavily advertised as a discussion of "Labor's Agenda for Women", no NSW Labor policy statements relating to "women's issues" were available. Neither was Pam Allen willing to tell the meeting what was in the policies. When one woman asked about Labor's policy toward funding of services for survivors of sexual violence, Allen snapped, "I won't tell you what's in the policy until it's been released".
Another woman asked why women should vote for Labor, given the performance of "left" Labor MLA Sandra Nori, who vigorously campaigned in 1994 to stop the establishment of a women's transitional centre in her electorate. Allen responded by offering to "stack [my] feminist credentials against yours any time!"
Allen claimed the NSW Labor had a "fantastic" women's health policy, but when asked for details, said she could not reveal any of it, except to reiterate that decriminalisation of abortion was not included.
When one woman asked about ALP policies affecting Aboriginal people, Allen told her, "You'll have to ask Col Markham, Labor spokesman on Aboriginal affairs". A question about the effects of enterprise bargaining on women was not answered.
Harben's major contribution to the meeting was to insist that she should be elected to be "a progressive voice in caucus." The meeting was left to ponder the question: if the ALP is the natural party of government for working people, and women in particular, why should anyone need a "progressive" voice in Caucus?