Alison Mau
Julie Bishop, former Australian foreign minister and the woman-who-should-beprime-minister, got a rockstar reception from the girls of St Cuthbert’s College on Friday. As she swept up the tree-lined driveway in a sleek white limo to cheers and applause, I did hear one confused, tartan-skirted wee thing ask her neighbour ‘‘why are we here?’’ But otherwise, Bishop wowed a packed school hall with a rousing ‘‘girls can do anything’’ speech in which she even name-dropped Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon.
If only girls could do anything in Australian politics. Bishop – the most qualified politician never to have made prime minister, is unfortunate proof that when it comes to the Liberal Party anyway, they can do almost anything. Emphasis on the almost.
You’ll recall Bishop was one of the candidates in last year’s ‘‘spill’’, the leadership vote that led to Scott Morrison becoming the latest in a long and rapid line of new PMs. Bishop was a hugely respected foreign minister. The day before the caucus vote, polls showed her as the leader the Australian public wanted, and the one who could have led the government to a decisive victory in the upcoming election.
Bishop was robbed, no doubt about it. Commentators at the time put it plain; she was let down by her colleagues because she’s a woman, in a political party that chooses ‘‘bloated and underwhelming men’’ for its leadership positions and does not care what the voters want.
Bishop herself can’t say that – in fact, she’s repeatedly claimed that she does not see her loss as a gender issue. This is no doubt what the party wants you to hear, and a common claim from MPs of all stripes; nobody wants to infer that theirs is the party that has the real problem. But, with less than 30 per cent of its seats held by women, Liberal does indeed, have a problem.
Bishop did not appear to enjoy her time with me, and I really don’t blame her. Who would want to spend the best part of half an hour being grilled about sexism in parliament, when you’re not really allowed to say there’s too much sexism in parliament?
She does a very good line in steely composure (the type that makes you wither internally until you might just blow away in the breeze) and I love her for that. She is at least publicly talking about how to get more women into politics, and her ideas are good ideas; including workshopping with women who might be interested but who need to know more about what is involved.
She is not a fan of quotas, which she points out are often ignored anyway, when a man comes along and says ‘‘Oi, I want that seat’’. If there was ever a time for a quota, it would be now, with Parliament’s sexism and harassment under scrutiny.
I asked Bishop for her reaction to the report last week that more than half New Zealand’s women MPs have been subjected to psychological violence, often by other MPs, and that 86 per cent didn’t have a clue how to report it or decided to just put up with it.
Bishop was robbed, no doubt about it.
She called it ‘‘deeply disturbing’’ and would support a code of conduct for Australian MPs ‘‘if that’s what it takes’’. But she also pointed out what should be obvious and yet, somehow, is not; our leaders should not need a code of conduct when ‘‘fundamental human decency and respect (should) already dictate their behaviour’’.
Bishop is here in New Zealand to advise the National Party on how to win back government. She should be in a position to say ‘‘appoint a woman as leader’’ and use herself as an example. It’s a great pity that the mana, experience and support she has was not enough to get the ‘‘bloated’’ boys out of the way, and get the Aussies the woman prime minister they really wanted.