Giving women a voice
PETER Beattie will ensure the next independent member appointed to the ARL Commission is a female after the new chairman declared the current gender disparity was “not good enough”.
If constitutional reform is passed next month, Professor Megan Davis will be the sole female in a 10-person commission, with the four new club and state representatives to each be filled by males.
That will represent a decrease from 25 per cent female representation on the committee to just 10 per cent, after Catherine Harris ended her tenure on the original six-person committee on Wednesday.
“It’s not good enough just to have one,” said Beattie, who will attend today’s Burleigh Men of League function on the Gold Coast.
“Any sport that doesn’t engage women is doomed. Regardless of what happens in the current constitution the next person who is appointed from one of the current independents will be a woman.”
Beattie is at this stage yet to canvas potential candidates, with any introduction of new commissioners unlikely to come until next year if constitutional reform is passed.
In his time as Queensland premier, Beattie elevated Anna Bligh to deputy of the Labor Party, before she became the country’s first elected female premier of any state in 2009.
And he is hoping to help create similar history within the ARL Commission when his time as the chair eventually comes to an end.
“We want someone who has the skills to be a future chair. It will be a woman and it will be a competent woman,” Beattie said.
“We will work with the clubs and the NSWRL and QRL in a long-term strategy to increase the number of women.”
The announcement came as part of a big first day in office for Beattie after he replaced the outgoing boss John Grant.
He formally put expansion back on the table and vowed to try to reunite the clubs after Gold Coast, Melbourne and Canterbury were given more time to consider constitutional reform until March 12.
He also pledged to open the doors of the NRL to create a more transparent game, vowing to release quarterly financial statements of the organisation and brief fans through the media following commission meetings.
“I’ve been cautioned by some people this is very unwise ... we’re going to be unwise and share it with our fans,” he said.
Beattie said he and NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg had drawn up a list of the 40 top companies in Australia, which he wanted the game to work more closely with.