PNG, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste women join Australian Labor International Projects course, Cairns

Date:  22 December 2007

International Projects consultant and trainer Dr Lesley Clark convened the inaugural Women! Campaign to Win Asia Pacific workshop in Cairns and Brisbane between 14 and 20 October 2007.

Designed to address the needs of women in the region to run for and win elected office, the course provided a unique opportunity for women in politics in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste to engage with Australian Labor’s best women candidates , MPs and party officials to discuss practical ways forward for women’s political empowerment in the region.

Dr Clark, who has become an international trainer for the ALP since retiring from state politics last year, said that the program provided women with the opportunity to share experiences and identify ways of overcoming the cultural and institutional barriers that they face to get elected.

At present, the representation of women in parliaments in the Pacific is the lowest in the world at just 4%. By contrast in Timor Leste 30% of elected members of parliament are women as a result of the nature of their electoral system and the affirmative action measures introduced by political parties since independence.

The inaugural program had 20 women participants from PNG, the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste and included women Ministers, MPs and aspiring candidates as well as observers from UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and ministerial officers for women.

The program was open to political parties, Independent MPs and candidates in each of the three target countries and to women’s organizations where appropriate. There was great interest in the course in the region and International Projects was unable to offer places to over half the applicants. Several political parties from the region offered to fund extra places so that their nominees could take part. In its efforts to consolidate democracy in the region, Australian Labor’s International projects will continue to build partnerships in the region and to encourage more women into politics through projects such as the Women! Campaign to Win initiative.

The program included training sessions in Cairns which focused on the challenges for Pacific women including affirmative action strategies, continuous campaigning, engaging with political parties and community, media skills, policy development and the role of government in fostering gender equality. Delegates were provided with resource folders containing information from each training session. These resource books were designed to become campaign manuals for each candidate with room set aside to amend the information according to local demands.

Participants received a taste of the campaign for the federal seat of Leichhardt, when they met with the Labor, Liberal and National candidates for informal discussions about their campaigns. Leichhardt was eventually won by Labor candidate Jim Turnour.

In Brisbane, the delegation met campaign practitioners and senior women in politics such as Minister for Women Hon Margaret Keech, the Director of the Office for Women, Senator Clare Moore, and ALP Queensland Branch Assistant State Secretary Linda Holliday and Equity Officer Lisa Rayner.

Delegates joined a forum with members of Labor Women’s Network and Queensland Labor Women’s Organisation to discuss the role and experiences of women in the ALP.

Queensland ALP State Secretary Milton Dick provided a comprehensive overview of ALP campaigning techniques using the last successful State election as the model. There was also great interest in the organizational structure and operation of the ALP. Many of the participants decried the lack of empowering institutions within their own party structures.

The workshop ended with strategic planning sessions, where the women collaboratively developed their own 12 month action plan. The plans of women from all three countries included the implementation of affirmative action strategies of some kind. In the case of Timor Leste the focus was on the local government level while for both Solomon Islands and PNG their aim was to unite women to work towards a system of reserved seats in parliament for women.

Already the workshop has inspired several follow-up initiatives as the participants build local and international networks to support better outcomes for women in politics.