page created 29/07/99
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RESPONSES BY WEL AND AWL TO THE PRIME MINISTER'S DRAFT PREAMBLE
WOMEN'S ELECTORAL LOBBY * AUSTRALIAN WOMEN LAWYERS
WOMEN'S ELECTORAL LOBBY AUSTRALIA INC.
PO Box 191, CIVIC SQUARE ACT 2608
Ph 02 62476679 Fax 02 62474669
mobile 0417499387
Email welaust@dynamite.com.au
Web page http//www.pcug.org.au/other/wel/
MEDIA RELEASE
Wed, 24 Mar 1999
A DEEPLY EMBARRASSING DOCUMENT
Women are shocked and appalled at the set of disjointed concepts and
phrases that was released today as the draft Preamble to the Constitution.
In leaving out any mention of equality of men and women, the Prime Minister
has clearly not been listening to half the population.
Despite raising women's expectations that there would be a specific
statement of equality of men and women before the law, and having received
submissions from the Women's Constitution Convention Steering Committee
calling for a clear and encompassing statement of equality of men and
women, he has let us all down.
The expressions of dearly valuing 'mateship' is also revealing. Mateship
has always been about Anglo male bonding. It excludes women, Aboriginal
people and men who look different. When the Coalition uses it about the
Opposition, it's meant as an insult.
Considering the Preamble was supposed to express the values underpinning
our government, you'd expect that the first thing it would talk about is
democracy. Its appearance in an unintelligible next-to-last paragraph,
linked to invocations against achievement is astounding.
WEL deplores the omission of recognition of original Indigenous ownership
and ongoing custodianship. The attempted references about valuing diversity
are incomprehensible gobbledegook, ie 'people from many arrivals'.
We wanted an inclusive Preamble that expressed the principles agreed by
the Constitutional Convention and included the principle of equality of men
and women as their starting point. We wanted words with emotional impact
that would lift the spirit of those who claimed them.
As a grade three attempt, WEL would give the document a score of one out
of five for trying.
As a serious draft to be put to a referendum, it needs to be torn up.
For further information contact
Judy Harrison 0417 212 306
Meredith Doig (03) 9530 2954
Marian Sawer (02) 4249 0130
Helen Leonard 0417 499 387
MEDIA RELEASE
Date Wed, 24 Mar 1999
Preamble - a missed opportunity
"The Prime Minister's preamble is an opportunity missed for Australian women'", said AWL spokesperson on the Republic, Clare Thompson.
"It is highly regrettable that in a year in which Western Australian women celebrate the Centenary of Women's Suffrage, the Prime
Minister has chosen to ignore the recommendations of the Constitutional' Convention by failing to include women in the draft preamble."
"The fact that it is even necessary to raise this issue saddens me."
"As a Republican who attended the Convention, I held hopes that the Prime Minister would abide by his promise to legislate in terms
faithful to the Convention. This preamble does not do that", said Ms Thompson.
"The reference to ''mateship" in the preamble is an insult to those women who have striven to show that mateship has often been the core of their exclusion in business and public domains.
"Mateship" has come to represent the symbol of lesser treatment for women. The inclusion of this colloquialism is positively offensive and insensitive."
By ignoring women, the Prime Minister and Opposition leader,
Beazley, who doesn't see a problem with "mateship", have shown they do not understand the changes in our society over the past 30 years. It is not political correctness - it is a question of accepting that both women and men have equal rights in our nation.
AWL encourages the Prime Minister to reconsider his draft preamble and include a reference to women and men, not "mateship".
Contact Clare Thompson
AWL Director ph (08) 9211 7788 (w) 0412 126 093 (mobile)
NATIONAL WOMEN'S JUSTICE COALITION
email: nwjc@nwjc.org.au