WOMEN'S CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
STEERING COMMITTEE
Post: PO Box 191 Civic Square ACT 2608 Ph: 02
62476679 fax: 02 62474669
http://www.womensconv.dynamite.com.au/
Mandate: to promote the outcomes of the Women's Constitutional Convention 29-30 Jan. 1998_____________
Organisations represented on the Steering Committee: National Women's Justice Coalition ** Women Into Politics ** YWCA of Australia ** Women's Electoral Lobby (Australia) ** An Equal Say - Women for a Representative Democracy ** Women for an Australian Republic *** |
18 February 1999
The Honourable Daryl Williams AM QC MP Attorney-General Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Dear Attorney, 1999 Referendum on the Republic We are writing to you about the further development of legislation linked to the Referendum on the Republic later this year. Mr Nicholas Grono explained to Kim Rubenstein that a "Presidential Nomination Committee Bill" is currently being developed which will set out the mechanisms for the appointment of the President. He explained that the proposal at this stage involves setting up a 32 member committee which will be appointed by the Prime Minister. On that committee there will be 8 Commonwealth Parliamentarians, 8 State and Territory Parliamentarians and 16 community members with no Parliamentary positions. We urge you to also include in the legislation the requirement that the committee be made up of equal numbers of men and women. Therefore, one of the guidelines to the Prime Minister, in making those appointments as outlined above, should be that the Prime Minister ensure that the committee is made up of 16 men and 16 women. So, for instance, if it evolved that out of the 16 parliamentary appointments, 10 were men, then the Prime Minister would then have to ensure that 10 women were appointed in the community component to ensure the equal numbers for the entire committee. |
Moreover, in the responsibilities outlined for the committee, we urge that the legislation also require the committee to submit to the Prime Minister a list which has equal numbers of men and women, from which the Prime Minister would nominate the President to be approved by Parliament.
Both of these proposals will then ensure that women are equally involved in the nomination process and equally able to be chosen as President. This would then be consistent with the outcomes of the Women’s Constitutional Convention which required that the selection/appointment process for the Head of State must involve women at least to the same extent as men and the selection/appointment process must guarantee that women’s chances of occupying the position of Head of State be substantively equal to those of men.
If you would like to discuss this matter further, we would be most happy to do so.
Yours sincerely,
Kim Rubenstein
Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne
Convenor of "An Equal Say - Women for a Representative Democracy"
On behalf of the Women's Constitutional Convention Steering Committee
_________________________________________________________
cc. The Honourable John Howard,
Prime Minister
Senator The Honourable Jocelyn Newman. Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status
of Women
The Honourable Kim Beazley
The Honourable Rob McCelland, Shadow Attorney-General
Ms Jenny Macklin MP Shadow Minister for the Status of Women
Senator Meg Lees, Leader of the Democrats
All Australian National Women’s Peak Organisations