The Hon. AILEEN MacDONALD (22:02): We recently celebrated International Women's Day, a call to action for accelerating women's equality. I see it as another reminder that we need more female representation in Parliament, and what a great start tonight to have four of the six adjournment speeches being delivered by women. Australia still lags behind countries like Iceland, New Zealand and Rwanda when it comes to female representation, but I inform the House of a national program to change that. It is called Pathways to Politics for Women and it highlights that Australia is ranked thirty-second in the world when it comes to women in Parliament. That is just not good enough.

Last September I had the fortunate opportunity to sit in the Speaker's chair in the other place before 27 young women who had completed the program and delivered speeches in the Legislative Assembly. They represented Labor, The Greens, Independents, The Nationals and the Liberal Party. Each in their own way was inspiring and had a powerful story to tell. The program is delivered by the University of New South Wales and applications are now open for its fourth year. It is an initiative of the Trawalla Foundation and directly seeks to address the under‑representation of women in Australian politics. For me, that is a subject of paramount importance.

We keep hearing in this place that it is all about the numbers. Following the New South Wales general election in March last year, female representation in the Legislative Assembly is at 40.9 per cent. In the Legislative Council it is at 45.2 per cent. That brings the New South Wales Parliament to an overall 42.5 per cent, which is a big increase on women making up 34 per cent of the previous Parliament. I am proud to say that the Liberal Party is close to parity. Eight of the 18 frontbenchers in the shadow Cabinet are female, and women make up 44 per cent of the Liberal Parliament members.

I totally understand why many people are turned off by what they see in the media regarding politics and politicians, not to mention the unfortunate and masculine nicknames, such as the other place being commonly referred to as the bear pit. So I want to use this opportunity to urge and encourage any woman, whatever age she may be, thinking of representing her electorate, be it State or Federal, to please follow that instinct. It would be great to see each of those 27 women whom I met last September in the Chamber be elected and change the complexion of both Houses forever. I did it and I am proud to represent the people of northern New South Wales. I would love to see a fifty-fifty split in my time here. I remind the House that the first woman was elected to the New South Wales Parliament in 1925. We even have a room in this building named after her. Sadly, it is at the back of the place and known only by her surname. I take the opportunity to remind the House that her name was Millicent Preston‑Stanley.