New Queensland Premier Swears in First Political Team with a Female Majority in Australia

On Sunday afternoon, new Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk of the Labour Party announced the incoming members of her cabinet. The ministerial positions, reduced from 19 to 14 in order to save AUD$27 million (approximately USD$21 million)  over the next term, are to be occupied by six men and eight women; making Premier Palaszczuk’s cabinet the first female dominated political team in Australian history. The cabinet also boasts Queensland’s first indigenous female minister Leeane Enoch and Jackie Trad as Deputy Premier, who with Palaszczuk makes up the first elected female political leadership pair.

Currently, Australia ranks a disappointing 48th globally for percentage of women in federal parliament with 26% in the Lower House and 38% in the Upper House. Although this showing is relatively respectable compared with the United States at 75 with 19% and 20%, considering that developing countries such as Rwanda (1), Senegal (7) and Mexico (18) far outrank Australia, it becomes considerably less impressive. Australia held a much higher spot in the low 20s at the dawn of the millennium, but has since steadily declined to its present position tucked just inside the top 50. Although developing countries with deeply ingrained social gender segregation also often have high female representation in parliament due to quotas, Australia’s ranking is surprising, taking into account the country’s history of progressivism concerning women and politics. After New Zealand, Australia was the second country in the world to grant women suffrage federally in 1902, concurrently becoming the first country to allow females to run for election to parliament as laid down by the Commonwealth Franchise Act.

Overall, considering that the state of equal gender representation in Australian politics is mediocre at best, the induction of Palaszczuk’s new cabinet is not only historic, but particularly notable taking into account the contemporary governmental climate. While Queensland’s cabinet is now 57% female, its federal equivalent is only 11% women, with Foreign Minister Julia Bishop and Health Minister Sussan Ley working alongside 17 male colleagues. At the state level, Victoria is second to Queensland for gender parity, with a cabinet consisting of 41% female representatives, and Western Australia brings up the rear at 18% women. While these numbers may seem low, and inconsistent with  Australia’s tendency to be a frontrunner when it comes to developing women’s access to political life, the fact remains that Australian women still hold very little actual political power and have never laid claim to some of the most prominent positions in the Australian political system. For example, no woman has ever served as federal Opposition Leader.

Palaszczuk’s choice of leaders has already come under attack, with many criticizing  the relative inexperience of the new appointees and their noticeable correspondence to the factionalism in the Queensland caucus. Both of these criticisms are legitimate to some extent.  A number of the new cabinet members, including Minister Enoch, are brand new members of parliament with no previous ministerial experience. In terms of factionalist tendencies, Palaszczuk’s appointments in  the Queensland cabinet, which has included dispensing with high profile members such as former Premier Anna Bligh, has constructed a cabinet that corresponds very accurately to the share of each faction in the general caucus. This fact, predictably, has fuelled accusations that the new ministers were appointed according to the influence of factional powerbrokers. However, the Premier came out to  staunchly defend her selections, stating that they represented ‘an exciting mix of experience and fresh talent’ and that she has ‘put together the best possible team to serve the population of Queensland.’

Whether the newly appointed group of Queensland ministers were appointed purely on the basis of merit,  as a result of the sway of factionalism, or in order to create a more balanced  team in terms of gender and race  cannot be empirically deduced, but such is always the case concerning motivations behind these sorts of choices. The fact that these factors, which play a part in politics at all times, are being given so much attention during this particular election period is what is out of the ordinary. Similarly, the outpouring of newspaper headlines shouting about the ‘female dominance’ of Palaszczuk’s  cabinet and making comparisons to Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s male-dominated cabinet seems misguided. The fact that a gender ratio of 57%/43% can be classified as dominated by one side speaks volumes for the national conception of sexism; and is as significant as the new Queensland cabinet’s swearing in when calculating Australia’s true location on the gender equality spectrum.