EMILY’s List calls on the ALP to replace Senator Nova Peris OAM with an Indigenous woman.
EMILY’s List acknowledges Senator Nova Peris OAM for the impact she had as the first Aboriginal woman and the ALP’s first Aboriginal MP in Australia’s federal parliament.
We wish Senator Peris all the best for her future roles, knowing that she will continue her fierce commitment to Indigenous Australians, especially women and girls.
EMILY's List Australia launched a research report earlier this month, titled Indigenous Australian Women in Power: Barriers to and opportunities for better Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation in state and national politics written by Zoe Moorman (as part of a 2015 University of Melbourne Public Affairs Internship placement with EMILY’s List Australia).
In it, Zoe Moorman wrote that the four current Indigenous women MPs interviewed for the report recalled the additional pressure they felt in becoming the “first” to occupy a parliamentary role.
“We remind Bill Shorten of his commitment to increasing the number of Indigenous MPs. As quoted in the Guardian on the 23rd of July last year, Bill Shorten said ‘Indigenous Australians constitute 3% of the Australian population. If 3% of the 822 MPs across Australia were Indigenous, we would have 24 members, a third more than now.’ 1 By replacing Senator Peris OAM with an Aboriginal woman, we can continue to work towards a fairer Parliament, representative of all Australians,” said EMILY’s List National Coordinator, Lisa Carey.
“While there is some improvement in the numbers of Indigenous Australians in Parliament and contesting seats in this Federal Election, there are still a great many political firsts for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to overcome: the first Indigenous woman in the House of Representatives; first Indigenous woman in the Federal Cabinet; as Speaker of the House; Premier or Prime Minister.
“We call on the ALP to nominate an Indigenous woman to replace Senator Nova Peris OAM”, Lisa Carey said.
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Spokesperson: Lisa Carey, National Coordinator, EMILY’s List Australia, 0438 953 181
Since 2003, EMILY's List has been part of a coalition of women's groups working to encourage and skill Indigenous women to take their place on Australia’s parliament benches. The new research will be promoted around Australia by the organisation’s Partnership for Equity Network, which was established at the urging of Australia’s first ever Indigenous woman MP Carol Martin (MP for the WA state seat of Kimberley 2001-2013 and now candidate for Durack).
1 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/23/bill-shorten-without-more-indigenous-labor-mps-we-cant-be-true-to- our-values
EMILY’s List Australia is a financial and political support network for progressive Labor women candidates, providing financial support, training, mentoring and gender gap research.