WNB women show support for bill

WOMEN representatives from West New Britain oil palm blocks flew to Port Moresby last week to witness the vote on the reserved seats for women.
Agatha Kapi said: “After seeing the news of the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s visit to PNG and her passion to empower women, a few of us decided to fly to Port Moresby to encourage the vote on the 22 seats to be taken during the November session of parliament.
“At the airport in Kimbe, we read the news of (prime minister) Sir Michael’s commitment to put forward during this session of parliament the vote to create 22 seats in the existing 22 electorates around the country.
“It was with tears of joy and happy hearts that we boarded the aircraft.
“We are women that till the land and earn our living from gathering the fruits that have fallen away from the larger bunch of palm oil.
“We feed and nurture our children, the future human capital of this country.
“We face hardships that we often find embarrassing to speak publicly about but they are issues that must be addressed.
“We believe that women that have lived these experiences can give prominence to these issues so that life and lifestyles can be improved.
 “We thank Sir Michael for his recognition of women who make up 50% of all electorates but are hardly ever represented in parliament.
“We support his commitment and call on all our West New Britain MPs to support half of the voters in their respective electorates by voting for this bill.
“We thank Dame Carol and the Department of Community Development, the National Council of Women, the United Nations and the Australian government for all the preparatory work behind the scenes on this bill.
“We believe once passed, this bill will change public perception and attitudes towards women.
“Our concerns of crime, rape in the homes, violence, and financial security can be addressed.”
The National Council of Women (NCW) has also welcomed the prime minister’s commitment.
NCW president Scholar Kakas told last weekend’s informal gathering to welcome women who were travelling in from different parts of the country to witness tomorrow’s parliament sitting, that this would be the turning point in the history of PNG.
She said women would finally be adequately represented in parliament.
“I am confident that our members of parliament will support women by voting for this bill.
“We have had eight parliament terms since independence in 1975, but have had very few women elected over the years.
“Our predominantly patriarchal attitudes have impacted heavily on PNG women being voted into parliament using the system of first passed the post and also the limited preferential voting system.
“We, therefore, support the prime minister’s commitment to take affirmative action to address this imbalance.”
Kakas said this would be a great way for PNG to also meet one of its millennium development goals on gender equality and empowerment.
“We strongly urge members of parliament to forget their individual preferences and to do what is right by recognising the other 50% of your electorate by giving them a vote on the floor of parliament during this session.
“Problems women and children face in daily life will continue to be trivialised until there are enough women on the floor of parliament.”