August 30, 1995
Issue
Courier-Mail. "They really do want action. They want it for themselves, for the community — they want to achieve true political equality." Labor's failure to implement its affirmative action quota policy — to allocate women candidates 35% of winnable seats before the year 2002 — is proving to be a contentious issue, and is one of the main reasons behind the formation of the AWP in Queensland. The party's major focus will be to change the Constitution to achieve equal parliamentary representation for women.In April, local ALP factions were involved in a factional struggle to settle the pecking order for the party's Senate ticket.
As it was initially drawn up, Bernadette Callaghan — the only woman on the ticket — was allocated the third, virtually unwinnable, place. With the Australian Workers Union right and the Labor left factions lined up against her, Callaghan demanded that she be moved up the list. Rather than upset the factional status quo, the left withdrew its male candidate and replaced him with a woman — who just happened to be the wife of the ALP state president, state cabinet minister and Labor left leader, Bob Gibbs.
The conveners of the AWP all have a long history in the labour and women's movements. Most of them were once in the ALP. Mary Kelly and Jenny Hughey come from the Queensland Teachers Union, of which Kelly was president for many years. Lyn Graham was a long-term Socialist Left member and supporter of ex-ALP Senator George Georges (who wants the disaffected left to return to the Labor Party). Debra McLoughlin has been a key activist in Queensland pro-choice politics. Jeni Eastwood, who joined the ALP during the Goss government's first term of office, was, until recently, a leader of the state public service union.
Other conveners are Clare Tilbury, Lesley McFarlane, Trish Frick, Gaye Vale and Louise Comino.
The formation of the AWP represents a major split in the ALP. Hughey was the immediate past president of the Queensland Labor Women's Organisation, so the AWP signifies a weakening of longstanding feminist allegiance to the Labor Party. The Goss government's refusal to implement the party's pro-abortion policy and the failure of leading figures such as ex-cabinet minister Anne Warner to pursue a feminist agenda in parliament have led many to conclude that the ALP is a roadblock to furthering women's rights.
Also in tatters is the party's Socialist Left faction, which split during the state conference last year and then lost the fight over the order of the Senate ticket. The advent of the AWP could threaten its network of feminist support within the local trade union apparatus and academia.
This announcement of yet another political formation that has the potential to capitalise on the discontent with the major parties has angered Labor and Democrat leaders.
Democrat leader Cheryl Kernot has accused the AWP of putting her seat in jeopardy if it allocates preferences to ALP women candidates ahead of her. "I doubt their integrity about getting more women in parliament when they propose to run against a woman", she said.
If the good showing of the Green Party during the recent state election was translated to the Senate in the federal elections, the Democrats' representation in Queensland could be halved, a Green candidate replacing Democrat Senator John Woodley. A further wild card, such as an AWP preference deal, would certainly threaten Kernot's position.
The status of the AWP's founders — all veterans of key feminist struggles during the last 20 years — is sure to damage the ALP's credibility among its women supporters.
Nonetheless, it remains to be seen if this new electoral formation can pick up support from younger women who do not have the same orientation to the ALP. If the AWP limits itself to the parliamentary sphere and trades preferences in the same way as the Queensland Greens, its impact may be short-lived.