Julie Bishop is no stranger to the rough and tumble of politics. She is a 20-year veteran of the federal parliament; for 11 she was the Liberalsโ deputy leader. And just to complete the picture she was the nationโs foreign minister for the past five years.
The coup that despatched her good friend Malcolm Turnbull to the backbench and then on to a fast track out of parliament also saw Bishopโs career take a dramatic turn. It can only mean her better days as a politician are behind her. So the shackles of ambition no longer bind her. She used this new freedom as a backbencher to call out what she says is a shocking culture in our politics.
You only have to watch question time when federal parliament sits to get a whiff of what she is talking about. Partisan rancour, insults, exaggeration and personal attacks are the norm. Malcolm Turnbull, when he came to the top job, pledged to change the tone only to find that this was condemned as weakness on his part from his internal party critics; his failure was that he was not initially brutal enough in his attacks on his Labor opponents.
Bishop, in a frank speech to a Women of the Future Awards bash last week in Sydney, conceded that politics was โrobustโ and โnot for the faint-heartedโ. But she said the appalling behaviour she has witnessed wasnโt acceptable in business circles two decades ago and itโs time the institution that is the ultimate expression of our democracy, namely the parliament, caught up.
The former deputy Liberal leader had praise for her colleague, Julia Banks, who, like herself was successful in the private sector before entering parliament. She said when a โfeisty womanโ like Banks says โthis environment is not for meโ, donโt say โtoughen up princessโ, say โenough is enough.โ
Of course, politics is about power. The stakes and the rewards are high. But Bishop, like her Liberal colleagues Kelly OโDwyer, Linda Reynolds, Lucy Gichui as well as Banks, have done not only their party but us all a favour in calling out the bullying. This isnโt about playing the gender card, this is about respect.
In the same speech, Bishop lamented the Liberalsโ failure to make way for more women in their parliamentary ranks. She baulks at calling for quotas but other Liberals like OโDwyer and recalled minister Sussan Ley are surely right in saying the โmeritโ arguments have failed. Labor is close to 50% female representation in parliament, itโs time for some real effort at catch-up. The Liberalsโ goal of 50% female representation by 2030 canโt happen if women arenโt preselected for safer seats. Targets on the never never fool nobody.
As well, all political parties need to have enforceable codes of behaviour accountable to an independent authority. Laborโs internal dealing with backbencher Emma Husar or the Nationalsโ internal inquiry into Barnaby Joyce fall far short of Bishopโs clarion call โenough is enoughโ.
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