Asia and the Pacific

Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

A national meeting of Labor women has been told the government is making gender equality a tougher battle in Australia.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek told the convention on Saturday that a range of budget measures announced in May will work against women and used as an example the story of a single mum living in her Sydney electorate.

Like many Australian women, Nicola Quin has become disillusioned with the number of women in parliament, both at the Federal level and in her home state of Victoria where women hold just 30% of parliamentary positions.

Women in Politics, a brand-new organisation for New Zealand women in political office, was met with overwhelming support at the 2014 Local Government New Zealand Conference held this weekend in Nelson.

The networking opportunities at the conference meant that the group’s new Chair Angela O’Leary - also a Hamilton City Councillor - was able to introduce the group to Elected Members from around the country.

The Queensland Legislative Assembly, where women hold the roles of Speaker and opposition leader, has the nation’s lowest female representation at 21.3 per cent, compared with a national average of 29 per cent of all Australian parliamentarians. Women make up a fifth of ministers in state and federal governments.

Mu Sochua’s arrest by Cambodian authorities on charges of insurrection was hardly the biggest international news headline in a week of war, death and destruction on front pages and throughout news feeds. Indeed, after the elected opposition Member of Parliament and five others were taken into custody after a clash in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park over the rights and wages of Cambodian garment workers, coverage was understandably scant against the horrific backdrop of Gaza and Ukraine.

Charging the former Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of "betraying women by not giving reservation to them in decision-making bodies", BJP today said it was committed to political empowerment of the fairer sex by granting 33 per cent reservation to them.

Afghan parliamentarian and women’s rights activist, Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, has said that the Gender Quota is key to enhance the political participation of women.

Ms Naderi made the suggestion during the Gender Equality Review Conference which was organized in the framework of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).