Female voters are being implored by former prime minister Julia Gillard to vote for gender equality by voting for Labor on Saturday.
Campaigning alongside her former deputy and now Labor leader Anthony Albanese on the eve of the election, Australia’s first and only female prime minister had a direct message for women.
“I want to see for this country a government that cares about, values and includes women and I know that a government led by Albo will do precisely that,” she said in Adelaide.
“For Australian women, if you want to make a better choice, please tomorrow go to your polling stations and vote Labor and vote for Albo to be prime minister.”
In the last parliament, women made up 47 of 151 seats or 31 per cent of the House of Representatives and were the majority in the Senate at 53 per cent.
Female voters, who helped deliver a Morrison government win in 2019, are widely expected to turn away from the Liberal-National coalition this election.
Mr Albanese said a government he leads would represent the entire nation.
“What that means is dealing with inequality on the basis of gender,” he said.
The opposition leader pointed to Labor’s plan for cheaper childcare, action on domestic violence, to close the gender pay gap and make parliament a safer place to work in.
Ms Gillard said changing the culture at Parliament House would only be done by having more women elected.
“(Labor) took that decision as long ago as the early 1990s … as a result of that, the Labor Party is now a much more diverse party, a stronger party, and our political party sends about half men, half women, to the parliaments of Australia,” she said.
