Lanai Scarr: Important matters such sexism and disadvantage of women are being ignored in election campaign

Tonight, at venues across the country – including Sydney and Perth – the nation’s leading women, and the men who support them, will gather at the Chief Executive Women annual gala dinner. It’s one of the most prestigious events in Australia’s corporate calendar and is attended by CEOs and their management teams from across the country. Funds raised at the dinner are used to support the organisation’s work to enable more women leaders in Australia. The chair of Elon Musk’s Tesla — Australian Robyn Denholm — will be the guest speaker. And interestingly the event will pay tribute to late Australian fashion designer Carla Zampatti, whose daughter Allegra Spender is running as a “teal” independent in Malcolm Turnbull’s former seat of Wentworth against the Liberal Party’s Dave Sharma. It’s poignant that this event is occurring less than two weeks before election day, during a campaign in which women’s issues have not been front and centre. In a bruising political year when the sexism and disadvantage levelled at women has been under the spotlight, it’s disappointing we haven’t seen these issues dominate the rhetoric throughout the four weeks of campaigning that has ensued. Women are 51 per cent of the Australian population but issues surrounding domestic violence, gender pay equity and female health certainly haven’t made up 51 per cent of the vernacular. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked about the debate regarding abortion currently occurring in the US at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters lunch on Friday, rather than saying women’s bodies were their own to make their own choices with, he didn’t offer his own personal opinion and said he didn’t want to stoke division. In Nine’s debate on Mother’s Day on Sunday night, the two prime ministerial aspirants Anthony Albanese and Mr Morrison were asked to define a woman. The pair were also asked how women’s issues were being addressed. Mr Morrison said he didn’t believe women had been overlooked and listed his investments in reproductive health, the Gidget Foundation (which supports parents through perinatal depression and anxiety) and domestic violence as addressing “the needs of women”. Mr Albanese was asked about not launching an investigation into bullying claims by the late senator Kimberley Kitching. He didn’t address the lack of women’s announcements or that he had done very little campaigning in the past four weeks with his Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek (for the record he was out in Sydney with her on Monday). The reality is the parties don’t believe women’s issues will be vote winners in this election. News website Women’s Agenda asked Minister for Women Marise Payne to attend a debate with Ms Plibersek and Greens spokeswoman Larissa Waters, but the minister declined. In fact, the Coalition’s Minister for Women has largely been missing on the issues of women in this campaign. But it’s not just women’s issues that have gone missing so far in this election cycle. So too has mental health, specifically youth mental health. Orygen, whose executive director is former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry, recently conducted a national survey to find out what the top issues were for voters. It found that one in five voters said mental health funding was one of their top two election issues. Climate change and economic management were the only other issues that beat out mental health. The poll also found that 80 per cent of Australians said mental health should be top priority for the next Federal government. But for an issue that’s among the most important for voters, where is the top-tier discussion? So far we’ve seen jobs, the economy and national security dominate. We’ve seen a focus on gaffes — which is valid — but not substance from the leaders on real policy and the real issues that matter. The National Disability Insurance Scheme also has largely been a missing issue this election — for the leaders at least. The only time it’s really been a key focus was when Anthony Albanese couldn’t name the six points of Labor’s policy. There is no doubt that cost of living is a key issue on the minds of Australians. But so too are other important issues that are being overlooked. And in the last two weeks, that has to change. Pre-polling opened on Monday. Australians are already casting their ballots. It’s time to step it up.