Sorry Foxy, but running a country is a full time job. Running a department of government, state or federal is also a full time job.

Emergencies don't wait until a time it suits parliamentarians to turn up at work in Canberra, Perth or Brisbane & often need decisions before an absentee minister would have time to get onto a plane, let alone get to Canberra.

With the money we pay Prime Ministers, & ministers I think it is reasonable to expect more than occasional appearance at the office. They definitely are paid enough to bring their families with them, if they want to be near them.

I'm afraid we have to say if ladies can't handle the job, then don't apply. Having members stay home is too big a cost for making changes.

In this instance I believe Tanya Plibersek has decided winning Labor leadership at the moment is a poisoned challis, she doesn't want. She is doing a Costello & dodging the leadership, & could be making an equally bad judgement.

Regardless of that, I have yet to see a Labor premier in Oz who was not a disaster, so I have no pressing desire for more ladies in parliament.

I don't think Annabel Crabb has any qualifications that would suggest she knows how politicians should be organising their lives; nor that the parliamentary system of hundreds of years should be concerned with making life easier for women who would make a better contribution to society by raising their own children instead of farming them out to strangers. If women wish to work when their children start school, there are more dignified and useful jobs for them than politics.

Dear Foxy,

The correct question should be, why is there a parliament in Canberra in the first place? Why are we being ruled remotely, for some it is from 1000's of kilometres away?

Having independence for the states will also mean, for example, that the Victorians need not complain about Queenslanders spoiling their GW celebrations, nor do Queenslanders need to complain about the interference of "Southerners" in their mining business.

Smaller states mean more freedom for everyone, so if you feel really oppressed by the laws and regulations of one region, you could simply move to another.

Whatever happened to the old -fashioned tele conferencing & video link-ups ? I believe there's also a technology called internet & telephone that would negate time-wasting travel & expenses. It seems rather idiotic to first develop such technology at massive cost & then don't use it.
An indigenous elder told me he wasn't going to vote for the liberal incumbent because "we don't see him anymore lately". That's after the community had literally millions spent on it to be a show community that doesn't actually do anything

Hi Foxy,

This brings us to to broader question of gender equality, and the roll of women in modern Australian society. Many on the Forum are not going to see that as nothing more than "traditional", being a wife and mother, who is keeping the home fires burning. Given the the pressures and requirements of life today, not all are accommodated, or necessarily wanting, that traditional lifestyle.

In a truly progressive society there would be choices that accommodate all manor of alternatives, but unfortunately that is not the case generally in Australia, particularly for women. Many women are being denied the choice of a career because of those unbending constraints placed on them by the traditional family model, which many feel obligated to conform to.

Paul1405,
Pliberseck, is not constrained by traditional wife family model, she's constrained by her ability which suddenly she realised wasn't what she thought it was.
I for one thank her for it !