Visitor urges PNG to vote for women

AN Australian woman senator visiting Madang last week has challenged Papua New Guineans to elect women leaders, saying they can make better laws.
Rachael Siewert, an Australian Greens Party member, said Papua New Guinea needed better laws for the elderly, unemployment problems and others that gave a better quality of life to the people.
In short speeches at stops, she stressed that the men needed to understand that women were the givers and carers of life and were sensitive to most issues that would affect the quality of life.
Working with non-governmental organisations for a long while, Siewert, chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs and party whip for the Australian Greens, was concerned at the lack of women in the PNG parliament.
“If six of the 10 Greens representative are women in our parliament with almost half of the house consisting of women, then it is high time women in PNG voted women to bring the change that they so crave for,” she said.
Supporting her colleague, Penny Wright, a lawyer, brought home the message that a woman’s strength at looking into the finer details of life made it easier to make better laws which included the less privileged.
She said in Australia, women received enormous support from their male colleagues.
“Australians have realised that women are better leaders in that they care firstly about their families, then their community and the nation,” she said.
The senators left yesterday morning for Port Moresby where they will leave for Australia.