Women’s groups condemn the new preamble for its lack of an equality clause led by Women’s Electoral Lobby. WfaAR comment: while we, in common with most politically active women’s groups, are bitterly disappointed about the lack of the equality clause, we believe that this can be pursued through other avenues eg a Bill of Rights. Similarly, we believe that the preamble is an introduction to a law rather than an inspirational document for the country ie actions speak louder than words. However, we are practical and our view is that given the magnitude of the changes which the Prime Minister has now entertained (see references below to his persistent stance on retaining “mateship”) and as the new text is a vast improvement on the first version, we think this is as good as we are going to get. We applaud the inclusion of the new clause about recognising and protecting our environment.