Dame Carol Kidu urges parliamentary seats for Pacific women
27 November 2013
JEMIMA GARRETT | Radio Australia
PAPUA NEW GUINEA's former minister for community services Dame Carol Kidu has told aspiring politicians that reserved seats for women can play a vital role in ensuring Pacific countries have a genuinely representative democracy.
Papua New Guinea's former minister for community services has told aspiring politicians that reserved seats for women can play a vital role in ensuring Pacific countries have a genuinely representative democracy.
Speaking at youth forum in Sydney, Dame Carol Kidu said there is a strong argument for affirmative action.
"When there is only less than one per cent of half the population in Parliament, it is not a representative democracy," she said.
In the last PNG Parliament, Dame Carol Kidu was the only female out of 109 MPs.
She says reserved places in Parliament for women would make a big difference.
Some countries in the Pacific have already introduced reserved places, but in PNG reserved place legislation has not won enough support from male politicians.
The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Youth Forum brings young female leaders form Australia and the Pacific together with sitting MPs.
Since I've become a member of the Sepik Region Development Discussion Forum on Facebook I've been exploring many Facebook sites of PNG Women. I know some of them as they are my ex-students. I admire these educated women and the difficult lives that they have led.
Yesterday I read about one Sepik lady who has four children and has been down in New Zealand with them doing further study. I guess it would have been an exciting time for all of them but a lot of very hard work for this woman. As they say "educate a woman and you educate a family" - this was a wonderful example of it.
The women have set up Facebook groups where they can encourage each other. Many of them are strong Christians and they walk strong in their Faith.
Just image PNG if these women had been voted into parliament. What a different place it would be. They care about people. They are carers. Men are full of "ambition" and want to make money. Very few of them are brought up to be carers.
I agree that there should be reserved places for PNG women in the parliament. The few that have made it in their own right are wonderful but the parliament seems to be dominated by the men.
I feel that there should be some method of allowing good women to be elected into the PNG Parliament where their voices can be heard. Surely this will start to have a flow on effect throughout the whole country and lead to more respect for women and the stopping of all this horrific violence that is being shown to women in some provinces.
God bless the good women of PNG and help them to find a way they can play a stronger role in the country's development.
Posted by: Mrs Barbara Short | 27 November 2013 at 06:19 AM