As decades passed, women's rights became more accessible for retiree Raelene Dunstall. It has defined her dedication to prioritising community wellbeing, which she sees as more necessary now than ever before.
Originally from Adelaide, the fourth ACM Pub Test participant found "Canberra opened opportunities" when she was younger and women had less freedoms.
"When I left school, I was actually top of the class but a family circumstance led me to leave school quite young," Raelene said.
Growing up in Adelaide was "quite conservative" for Raelene who, before marrying her husband, wasn't allowed to be in the same room alone with him and recalls stories of friends being sent away if they were pregnant outside of marriage.
"People would hide things, you know, it wasn't talked about. It was very different and there wasn't the support for single parents and a lot of families," she said.
Moving to Canberra, Raelene didn't look back as she went onto complete her HSC through TAFE, to then attending university as a mature aged student, studying to be a teacher and librarian.
"You get the opportunity to mix with so many different people here and people from different nationalities and I think people here are a lot more tolerant and accepting of all types of people," she said.
'There were no uni fees'
While things were difficult for Raelene, she sees the current state of politics and society to be worsening rather than getting better.
"I think there is definitely a bigger gap between the rich and the poor and I think the opportunities for the poor to get ahead are fewer," she said.
The retiree observes how rising interest rates and "further government corruption" are making things harder for those most vulnerable to get ahead.
"When I did my degree courtesy of Gough Whitlam, there were no uni fees. I had fee-free uni but now if you're from a well-to-do family or one that makes massive sacrifices you have a HECS [debt] which is crippling when you're finished," she said.
"I don't think things are getting better for the low and lower end of the scale and you've just got to look at housing costs and rent costs."
Love for retirement and following more politics
Since finishing work about seven years ago, Raelene is grateful she now has more time to focus on the state of politics.
"As far as politics is concerned, I'm really only probably in the last 10 to 15 years been able to have the time to really take good notice of exactly what's going on," she said.
A big turning point for Raelene taking notice was when former prime minister Julia Gillard took over from Kevin Rudd in 2010, and the historic misogyny speech she delivered to Tony Abbott.
"I'm really a bit sad that I hadn't been following it from a much younger age. While I don't know that I would have had much more of an influence on anything, I think I would have been a much more informed voter, let's put it that way," she said.
Now Raelene and her husband enjoy going to public lectures at the John Curtin Medical School and the Academy of Science as well as visiting the Botanical Gardens, galleries and museums.
"It's given us the opportunity to do a lot of things that we weren't necessarily able to do to the same extent beforehand, so retirement's been really lovely," she said.
When it comes to what's next on Raelene's agenda, she has been inspired by high profile journalists Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb's book 'Well Hello' and hopes to give writing a book a try.
"I borrowed it from the library and I'm hoping that somebody might give it to me for Mother's Day because it's made me think about the past quite a bit ... a friend said I'll be thinking about writing a book next and I don't think that's a bad idea," she said.
Week four - voters have their say
There has been a dip in voter engagement this week for the Pub Test panel as the hype and excitement of the election has been "draining" for participants.
Ash Laing says while he started out being engaged and excited about the election, it has now gone on for so long he feels "there's a bit of a lull".
"I haven't really followed it at all, it's been pretty disconnected. When I'm just going about my business like the usual day to day life, I really don't have any involvement with Australian politics at all right now," he said.
Jim Macdougall has felt the same way throughout the campaign, however he has started doing a bit of research into candidates.
"I've looked into the House of Representative candidates for the ACT but not yet the Senate," he said.
"Canberra is pretty safe Labor so it isn't too exciting for me right now."
Raelene and Bri Williams said they have noticed some of the political antics, particularly the debate between Defence Minister Peter Dutton and shadow defence minister Brendan O'Connor.
"Liberals definitely had the confidence of talking to media a little bit more, I just found the shadow ministers didn't really have that sort of confidence or polish," Bri said.
"Dutton did well but he does frighten me but it's important to watch because it's probably where most of our money is going."
The big issue Raelene said she noticed this week was again cost of living and the government struggling to support people.
"I thought it was a bit of a farce of Scott Morrison saying that with the rate rise that people have been saving and we're well prepared for the rate rise," she said.
