A Labor backbencher is pushing for statues of prominent political women to be installed in Canberra, amid a fresh debate about the lack of female representation among the national capital's many monuments.
Suzanne Orr has this week asked Chief Minister Andrew Barr to consider commissioning a statue - or statues - which commemorate the "input of women to our political history" and "provides visible recognition in line with the recognition of contributions made by men of our past".
The Yerrabi MLA was a minister in Mr Barr's cabinet until she demoted in a reshuffle following Labor's ACT election victory in October.
Debate over the figures commemorated in Canberra's landmarks was reignited earlier this month after a statue of Andrew Inglis Clark, one of the co-authors of Australian constitution and a pioneer of the Hare-Clark electoral system, was unveiled outside the Constitution Place development in Civic.
The statue was commissioned by the project's developer Capital Airport Group, with the National Capital Authority putting forward Mr Clark's name as a candidate.
The authority was forced to defend the suggestion after it emerged Mr Clark, who was seen as progressive in his time for his work in the trade union and women suffrage movements, had made racist remarks against Chinese immigrants.
The unveiling of yet another monument to a male figure drew attention to the lack of female representation, an imbalance Ms Orr is now hoping to rectify.
"The saying goes that you cannot be what you cannot see," Ms Orr said in the December 22 letter to Mr Barr.
"If we continue to commemorate only the men within our political heritage, women will continue to be underrepresented and the message will be sent that their contribution is not as worthy as commemoration."
Ms Orr put forward a list of 13 candidates, all of whom she said were active at the time of federation in fighting for women's suffrage and "without whose advocacy and activism our democracy could have unfolded differently".
The list included the first woman elected to an Australian parliament, Edith Cowan; the co-founders of the first Female Suffrage Society in Australia, Henrietta Dugdale and Annie Lowe; and the four women who ran in the first election in which women were allowed to stand, Mary Moore-Bentley, Nellie Martel, Vida Goldstein and Selina Anderson.
Famous women
Ms Orr's list of candidates includes:
- Edith Cowan
- Henrietta Dugdale
- Annie Lowe
- Mary Moore-Bentley
- Vida Goldstein
- Catherine Helen Spence
- Rose Scott
- Eva Seery
- Henrietta Greville
