Increased Number of Women on ARM’s National Council

Direct election resulted in four women gaining membership of National Council for the next two years. They are Michelle Wood (NSW); Alice Crawford (Vic), Allison Henry (NSW) and Jessica Liddell (Vic) who will fill four of the 10 spots (the State and Territory convenors are automatically members of the NC). Together with Youth Convenor, Charlotte Barclay from the ACT, they make up 45.5 percent of the 11 elected members. Charlotte was the only female nominee for Youth Convenor out of five candidates. It was interesting to observe that seven women put themselves forward for the 10 positions out of a total of 27 candidates, so the success rate for female nominees was high; that a ticket of sorts operated for this election (for the first time) and eight of the ten elected were publicly supported by other candidates as part of a group. Most of those elected (and on the ticket) have close connections to the ALP, either currently or in the recent past as advisers or party officials. There were four nominees who appeared to have non Anglo-Celtic backgrounds with one elected – Jason Yat Sen Li who has had a high republican profile since 1998. The other person elected was Allison Henry who has a prominent ARM profile as a former National Director 2003-2006 and who has served on NC in several roles almost continuously since then. This election was also remarkable for the fact that two leaders of other republic groups stood – Peter Consandine from the Republican Party and Daniel White, Convenor of Labor for the Republic – but neither was successful.