She no longer has a seat on her party’s frontbench, but that won’t stop Illawarra Labor MP Sharon Bird from pushing to get more women into senior political roles.
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The Member for Cunningham, who was Labor’s spokeswoman for vocational education, is out of the shadow ministry – the result of limited support from within her party’s NSW Right faction.
Ms Bird chose not to contest a ballot in Canberra late last week.
“While I could get the numbers close, I couldn’t quite get across the line,” Ms Bird told the Mercury following last Thursday’s decision not to put her hand up.
“On that basis, I decided not to contest it.
“It’s a difficult, difficult circumstance. I just made a decision in the interests of unity and getting on with the job we’ve all got to do.”
Backers of Ms Bird had warned that the demotion of a woman would be a negative, given Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his deputy Tanya Plibersek had been taking aim at the lack of female representation in the Coalition party room and cabinet.
I acknowledge that the [new] Labor frontbench has a strong representation of women.
- Member for Cunningham, Sharon Bird
However, the move against Ms Bird had been justified on the ascension of Victorian MP Clare O'Neil, the first female indigenous MP Linda Burney and Tasmanian Senator Carol Brown, which ensured a higher ratio of women on the frontbench.
Adelaide MP Kate Ellis took over Ms Bird’s former portfolio, which is now known as TAFE and vocational education.
“I acknowledge that the [new] Labor frontbench has a strong representation of women,” Ms Bird said on Wednesday.
“We did well in NSW, with three new women members [elected] and across the left and the right [factions] in NSW even more women are coming into the team.”
Ms Bird said more needed to be done to translate Labor’s “very strong record in getting women elected” into seeing more females in senior roles.
“[There was] a bit of a setback for that [on Thursday] for me but [it] doesn’t take away from the legitimacy of us all pulling our weight to make sure we get more women into those more senior positions,” she said.
- with SMH