Australia’s first female PM: A win for women?
SP Newsletter No.322
On June 24th Australia inherited its first ever female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Some have hailed this as a great achievement in the struggle for women’s rights, regardless of the fact that Australian voters had no participation in the event.
While her ascension can be attributed to male factional leaders within the Labor Party, Gillard is undoubtedly a beneficiary of the movements of women around the world that have fought long and hard for equal rights.
This movement argues for women to be judged on their merits, not their gender. In this tradition, it’s only appropriate to hold Gillard to this standard. So, what merit does Gillard have when it comes to the major issues facing women?
When is comes to working women, Gillard has proven she is no friend of workers. She stared down the Australian Education Union in the female dominated education sector during an industrial dispute earlier this year, and has paid mere lip service to the Australian Services Union’s gender pay-parity campaign. As Workplace Relations Minister Gillard implemented the Fair Work Act, legislation that incorporated the worst elements of the much despised WorkChoices legislation of the Howard era.
On the question of childcare, Labor recently reneged on its 2007 election promise to build 260 new childcare centers. The opportunity arose in 2008 with the collapse of ABC Learning, which represented 25 per cent of childcare services in Australia, to bring childcare into public ownership.
Yet the Labor Government has protected the private profiteering of the industry, rather than bringing childcare into public hands democratically run by workers and parents in the interests of families and the community. According to a recent report, 72 per cent of childcare centers in Melbourne cannot accommodate any more children, making childcare unavailable to many families.
For Indigenous women, the Labor-backed NT Intervention has stripped them of the right to control their own lives. Women’s centers have been closed down, basic healthcare remains inaccessible and childcare facilities have been reduced, yet the NT Intervention will continue under Gillard’s reign.
In fact, Labor’s policy of blaming the victim for their social disadvantage has been extended under Gillard’s leadership. Welfare quarantining has now spread to non-Indigenous welfare recipients, including many single mothers receiving income support.
Gillard’s plan for refugee women is to demonise them, traumatise them, and lock them up wherever they cannot access their full rights under international law.
In regards to same-sex attracted women, Gillard has pledged her commitment to continue to deny them the right to marry.
With these new and continuing attacks on working women, single mothers, Indigenous women, lesbians and refugees, it’s impossible to see how the coming to power of Australia’s first female PM is a win for women.
Despite the fact that the three top positions in the Australian government- Head of State, Governor-General and Prime Minister- are all currently held by women, women’s oppression continues on many fronts.
The unfortunate fact is that social equality won’t come through the ballot box. Representatives of the major political parties, whether Labor or Liberal, male or female, do not represent the interests of ordinary people. Gillard’s policy shifts since becoming PM have been designed to appease big business and divert attention away from real attacks on people’s living standards in the context of economic instability.
What women need is not a female PM dedicated to the continuation of attacks against women as workers, mothers, lovers or ethnic minorities, but a movement of women and men demanding equality in every aspect of our lives.
The fight for equality is the fight for a society where the needs of all are met, regardless of gender, race, nationality, sexual preference or religion. The struggle for women’s rights is the struggle for socialism.
Upcoming SP meetings
The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party meets every Wednesday 7pm at Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South.
Upcoming meetings include:
11/8 – Report from CWI world school
18/8 – The politics of the Greens
25/8 – Federal election debrief
For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.
News links:
Textile workers: Protests in Bangladesh and Cambodia
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4428
China: Thousands join protests for Cantonese language
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4424
Britain: Youth and students - organise to fight for a future
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4421
Join the Socialist Party
If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.
We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.
Subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ newspaper!
Support the Socialist Party by subscribing to our monthly newspaper ‘The Socialist’. Subscription rates are only $10 per year or $20 solidarity price. You will receive 11 copies per year delivered to your door every month. You will also receive our email newsletter every week and you will know that you are supporting an organisation that is at the fore of fighting against the capitalist system. To subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a subscription form.
Socialist Party contact details
Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Adelaide: Phone David on 0883441474.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.
The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.
