Does Labor have twice the number of women the Liberals have in Parliament and on the frontbench?

Updated

The claim

After a bruising 2018 full of allegations of gender inequity, the Government has sought to recast its image among women, tasking several Liberal women with countering the narrative that the party is anti-woman.

Speaking to The Australian, Sarah Henderson said the Coalition's record on delivering for women "far exceeded" Labor's, while Senator Linda Reynolds wrote in an opinion piece for the same paper that Labor women were allowing themselves to be "used" by "a party whose culture has not yet evolved from the culture of another era".

In a tweetstorm, Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek hit back with a number of criticisms of the Coalition, including: "Labor has more than double the number of women the Liberals have in the Parliament and about twice the number of women on our front bench — that speaks for itself."

Is she correct? RMIT ABC Fact Check runs the numbers.

The verdict

Yes, Ms Plibersek's claim checks out, but there's more to it.

There are more than twice the number of Labor women in Parliament than there are Liberal women, in both raw numbers (44 vs 19) and proportional terms (46.3 per cent vs 22.9 per cent).

But calculating the frontbench is more complicated.

Firstly, the Government's frontbench contains members from both the Liberals and Nationals (and the Liberals do not control who the Nationals select).

As Ms Plibersek only referenced the Liberals in her tweet, and as this was a response to a Liberal Party issue, Fact Check considers the Liberal contingent of the frontbench to be more important in assessing her claim.

Secondly, experts Fact Check spoke to provided mixed definitions of what constitutes the frontbench, with much debate focussed on whether or not it includes assistant ministers (who typically sit in the second row).

Whichever way you define it, Labor has a larger frontbench than the Liberals – therefore, proportions must be considered alongside raw numbers for the full context.

When the frontbench is defined as all ministers or shadow ministers (excluding assistants), Ms Plibersek's claim holds on both of these measures.

Twelve of Labor's shadow ministers are women (40 per cent), compared to five female ministers for the Liberals (20.8 per cent).

When adding assistant ministers, the claim holds in raw terms (20 vs nine), but not proportionally.

Under this broader definition of the frontbench, Labor's female representation is just 1.6 times greater.

There is also a third definition — that only includes Cabinet members — which Fact Check accorded less weight in assessing Ms Plibersek's claim.

On this measure, Labor is only marginally ahead: seven to five in raw terms, or 33.3 per cent vs 27.8 per cent proportionally.

Women in Parliament

The Parliamentary Library publishes a breakdown of members of Parliament by gender and party.

The following table is based on this information from the time Ms Plibersek made her claim.

In raw numbers and proportional terms, Labor had more than twice as many women as the Liberals: 44 vs 19, or 46.3 per cent vs 22.9 per cent.

The Liberals' Coalition partner had less than 10 per cent female representation.

Only the Greens achieved parity.

What is a frontbencher?

According to the Parliament of Australia's Glossary of parliamentary terms, a "frontbench/er" is:

1. those members of Parliament who are ministers or shadow ministers

2. the seats where such members sit

This definition potentially encompasses all ministers in the Cabinet, the shadow cabinet, the outer ministry and the outer shadow ministry, in accordance with their titles and the seating plan of the House and Senate.

But what of assistant ministers, otherwise known as parliamentary secretaries, who typically sit in the second row behind their more senior counterparts?

Fact Check contacted Libby Stewart, a senior historian at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House for guidance in this definition.

Ms Stewart directed Fact Check to the Parliamentary Handbook, which says:

"Parliamentary Secretaries may substitute for Ministers in the Chamber in all respects (apart from answering questions), and are subject to the same constraints — for example, Parliamentary Secretaries may not ask questions and are prevented from participating in Private Members' business and Members' 90 second statements. "In relation to committees the guidelines stated that, as a general rule, Parliamentary Secretaries should not be members of a committee of inquiry, but recognise that there may be occasions when special reasons make a strong case for them to serve. "However, standing orders now provide that any Member appointed as a Minister (by definition including Parliamentary Secretary or Assistant Minister) immediately ceases to be a member of all committees."

On the subject of assistant ministers, the handbook says:

"Assistant Ministers are technically Parliamentary Secretaries and their role is as described above under the heading 'Parliamentary Secretaries'. "Any reference elsewhere in this text to Parliamentary Secretary applies equally to Assistant Minister."

Ms Stewart said the seating arrangement for assistant ministers was "a technicality", and that from the above passages "we conclude that [parliamentary secretaries] and [assistant ministers] can be considered frontbenchers".

No settled definition

John Halligan, an emeritus professor at the University of Canberra, told Fact Check that a narrower definition that includes only Cabinet ministers could apply.

He said that the seating arrangements in the House reflects the importance of their role, with Cabinet ministers being at the core.

"In seating terms [they] are in the front and directly opposing their Opposition equivalents. "This would exclude the outer ministry [who are still in front seats but on the curve of the seating arrangement] ... and the parliamentary secretaries."

But he said he could "see the case for regarding members of the ministry as on the frontbench", and thus suggested not limiting the analysis to the narrower definition.

Rob Manwaring, a senior lecturer at Flinders University's School of Business, Law and Government, also said the definition of the frontbench was a "grey area".

"Looking at the UK and Australian system, my view would be that [parliamentary secretaries] and ministers assisting would not be part of the frontbench," he told Fact Check.

"Yet, looking at the Australian Parliament, and if you use the criteria of whether or not they are sworn in [Federal] Executive Council, then there could be a case that [parliamentary secretaries] and assistant ministers are [part of the frontbench]."

John Wanna, a professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at Australian National University, told Fact Check that "historically junior ministers and parliamentary secretaries [or assistant ministers] would probably not be regarded as the 'frontbench', which designated those who sat in Parliament on the front bench of the chamber".

"Clearly now with the expansion of the ministry [Cabinet/inner and outer] and many [parliamentary secretaries], they all cannot sit on the front benches."

Professor Wanna noted that Labor had "gradually accumulated more on the shadow benches than the Government has on the ministerial benches" to "keep the factions happy".

He said that frontbenchers were paid an augmented salary, but that some of Labor's shadow ministers or assistant ministers did not receive this extra pay when they exceed the Government's numbers.

While the definition of frontbench is unsettled, there is no such ambiguity around the term Cabinet.

Given this, and given the definition in the Parliamentary Glossary, and given that none of the experts who spoke to Fact Check suggested only looking at the Cabinet, Fact Check considers that the term frontbench would be more widely understood to encompass more than Cabinet ministers.

Nevertheless, Fact Check has analysed Ms Plibersek's claim in relation to each of the three definitions:

All minsters and assistant ministers

All ministers, but not assistant ministers

The Cabinet

Liberals vs the Coalition

Ms Plibersek's tweet came in response to commentary from two Liberal women about a perceived problem with their party.

It did not mention Coalition partner the Nationals.

This is problematic when it comes to considering the frontbench.

Not only does Labor have more assistant ministers on its bench, it is also a single party with full control over said bench.

Meanwhile, the Coalition agreement with the Nationals provides a number of ministerial and assistant ministerial positions to the smaller partner.

The Liberal Party has little say over who the Nationals select.

With this in mind, Fact Check has compared Labor's frontbench numbers with the Liberal's frontbench numbers, as well as the Coalition's frontbench numbers.

Liberal comparison

Up-to-date lists of members of the Government and shadow ministries, including assistant ministers, are published on the Australian Parliament website.

Since Ms Plibersek made her claim, the Government list has been updated, but Fact Check tests claims using the information that was available at the time the claim was made, and thus will use the Government list current between December 18, 2018 and January 25, 2019.

From these lists, Fact Check has constructed the following graph.

The Liberal contingent of the frontbench is smaller than Labor's under all three definitions, so percentages must also be considered.

Considering the broadest definition, the Liberals have nine women out of 33 (27.3 per cent), compared to Labor's 20 (42.6 per cent).

In numerical terms, this is "around twice the number", but falls short in proportional terms — Labor's figure is only around 1.6 times larger.

Looking at only ministers, Labor has 12 women (40.0 per cent) compared to the Liberals' five women out of 24 (20.8 per cent).

This is "around twice the number" in both respects.

Finally, considering only Cabinet, Labor's seven women (33.3 per cent) compares to the Liberals' five of 18 (27.8 per cent).

This is nowhere near "around twice the number".

Coalition comparison

Adding the Nationals into the equation produces broadly similar results.

Once again, percentages are important, as the Coalition frontbench is only the same size as Labor's when considering the inner and outer ministry.

On the broadest definition of frontbench, Labor indeed has "around twice the number" of women to the Coalition, at 20, compared with 11.

In percentage terms, Labor has 42.6 per cent women to the Coalition's 26.8 per cent, which is 1.6 times larger.

Looking at only ministers, Labor's figures accord with Ms Plibersek's claim.

Labor has 12 women out of 30 in the inner and outer ministry (40.0 per cent), compared to the Coalition's six out of 30 (20.0 per cent).

This is double in both number and percentage terms.

Finally, Labor fares worst comparatively in terms of Cabinet ministers.

Labor has seven women in a shadow cabinet of 21 (33.3 per cent) compared to the Coalition's six out of 23 (26.1 per cent).

Wider Parliament

As frontbenchers under any definition can only be selected from members of Parliament, it is interesting to note the differences between each side's representation of women in ministerial or assistant ministerial positions and the wider Parliament.

Labor's percentage for all three definitions of the frontbench lags its total female representation of 46.3 per cent, although its widest definition only lags by around 4 percentage points.

Meanwhile under each definition, the Coalition's percentage on the frontbench either meets or exceeds its percentage of women in Parliament, which sits at 20 per cent.

Without the Nationals, under the broadest definition the Liberals' proportion of women on the frontbench is 27.3 per cent, which is greater than its total proportion of women in Parliament at 22.9 per cent.

Considering all Liberal ministers, the proportion of women at 20.8 per cent lags the proportion of Liberal women in Parliament.

But the party's proportion of women in Cabinet exceeds this number by almost 5 percentage points.

Principal researcher: Matt Martino

factcheck@rmit.edu.au

Sources

Topics: alp, womens-status, federal-parliament, australia

First posted