Australia Day Celebrations

Unley always celebrates Australia Day with a citizenship ceremony followed by a breakfast on the Village Green. This year, as always, it was a very pleasant morning. 43 new citizens were welcomed to Unley from at least a dozen different countries, some people having already been here most of their lives and others who have made the decision after the minimum qualifying period. As I sat on the stage with elected members from council and the state parliament I wondered what these new citizens thought about the place of women in governance in Australia (using Unley as an example) as they saw a dozen people of whom only two were women (Steph Key and myself). I wondered as well about affirmative action after a brief conversation with Isobel Redmond at the Tour Down Under; she is adamant that people should always be selected on merit. So am I, but I know that merit means different things to different people. We are to affirm various new positions for independent members on the new Section 41 committees at the Full Council meeting on Tuesday, how many will be women?