Updated
High-profile Liberal MP Julie Bishop has spoken about
how "lonely" and "isolating" it can be as a woman in politics, as she
proposed a radical change to the way Federal Parliament works.
Key points:
- Julie Bishop announced her impending retirement from politics in February
- The veteran politician said Parliament House "is not a family-friendly place"
- High-profile politicians Kelly O'Dwyer and Kate Ellis have also recently announced their decisions to leave federal politics
Taking to the stage for an all-female panel in Sydney, Ms Bishop reflected on her 20-year political career that — at one time — saw her as the only woman sitting around an all-male Cabinet table.
"It can be pretty lonely. You keep very much to yourself as a woman," she said.
"You don't go out drinking with the boys — it's just not the same camaraderie.
"Parliament House is not a family-friendly place," she claimed.The departure of Liberal Minister Kelly O'Dwyer and Labor's Kate Ellis — both in their early 40s with young children — seemingly backs up that theory, although they have both given personal reasons for leaving.
But, no politician can deny that travelling for more than 20 weeks of the year takes its toll.
Add to that the adversarial and "rough and tumble" nature of politics and of Canberra.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she had witnessed a deterioration in behaviour in her 12 years in Parliament.
"When I first started, the behaviour in the chamber was a lot better and it was the behaviour outside in the corridors and in people's offices that was confronting," she said.
"Over the years, the behaviour in the chamber got a lot worse.
"We cop it the worst as women — there's a specific gendered nature to it. Let me be very clear about that."As she prepares to leave politics, Ms Bishop suggested one way to change the political culture was to spend less time in Parliament.
"It's extraordinary that in this day and age, we have to have physical voting, you have to be physically present to vote," she said.
"I was in Ukraine years ago, they have electronic voting in Ukraine and we can't seem to manage it in Australia."
Appearing alongside Ms Bishop was her former Liberal colleague, Julia Banks, who defected to the crossbench after last year's leadership spill.
Ms Banks joked that she had made it very clear "that I've moved on from the Liberal Party" and diagnosed what she thinks is the cause of its woman problem.
"You've got leadership in the Liberal Party looking at women through this traditional prism of the white picket fence," she said.
"The world's moved on."
The self-proclaimed "sensible centrist" — who is taking on Cabinet Minister Greg Hunt in his Victorian seat of Flinders — suggested the Liberal Party was like a hybrid of the male-dominated TV shows Mad Men and House of Cards.
She told the audience she now had a new theme song — the Eurythmics' Sisters are Doing it for Themselves.
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