Tanya Plibersek's recent decision not to run for
the leadership of the Labor Party took many by surprise.
Myself included. She cited family reasons. If we are
serious about having more women in our parliament, then
perhaps we need to make some changes to ensure that they
are not the only ones having to make these life-style
choices.

For example:

What if politicians were able to do some of their work
via teleconferencing, instead of being required to
do it from Canberra?

Annabel Crabb writes an interesting article
in which she asks:

"Ïf MPs spent more time in their electorates, they'd not
only be able to go home to their families every night -
but they'd also find themselves more influenced by
those yelling at them about local issues then those
yelling at them about factional or ideological
divides in the airless corridors of parliament."

The link is worth a read.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-21/plibesek-labor-leadership-women-in-parliament/11132720

Your thoughts please?

the less Politicians and Government interfere in the average person's life the better. If that means staying away from Canberra then good. If women choose to have kids they are far better staying at home with them. The years go by to quickly and many regret farming them out instead of enjoying their formative years. If that means more men in Parliament then good. Most aren't interested in the gender/race politics that so many get promoted on. I for one am thrilled the Liberal party have got rid of Turnbull's women as in Banks and Bishop. They both showed themselves as devious and untrustworthy.

Sorry Foxy but they must spend that time in Canberra
In fact it oils the wheels of democracy and many say they do not spend enough there
EG member for Manila
They need to get together to deal with every thing including trying to get votes for upcoming bills to pass

Dear Belly,

Did you read the link I gave?

I think Annabel Crabb raises some valid points.

cont'd ...

Dear Belly,

we have representative democracy at its
ugliest. Toxicity reigns. Rituals like -
intelligence abatement known as "Question Time,"
cultivate and exploit hyper partisan messages
of the day, crafted only for repetition.

No wonder we have declining public trust in government.

There's many problems that need fixing within our
current political system. For example -
We have a crisis of
representation -
not only the lack of women, but our highly diverse
electorates that fail to identify with the major
parties.

We have a democratic system that is increasingly unable
to deliver good public policy in a consistent and coherent way.
It's unable to convince the public to support it.

Our public service seems to have an inability
to deliver independent quality policy
advice to ministers.
Perhaps due to cut backs of the service.

Our parties seem to be obsesses with short-term polling and
point scoring.

We need reforms.

Many political commentators have stated
that - reforms need to be rolled out - possibly in
stages to persuade a highly distrustful public that
democratic reform and renewal is in the interests of everyone.
Not just those in power.

Not would be a good time after
this election (and with its results)
to consider these reforms.

Electing new leaders is just not enough.

Dear Foxy,

Declining trust in governments ? Maybe in a purely hypothetical Shorten government, but here's something: will there be more or fewer 'independents' in either house of parliament for the next three years ?

Love always,

Joe