Talk:Janine Haines

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[edit] First woman to lead a political party in Australia?

Three points there. First, it would need to first parliamentary political party, because I'm sure some minor party has had a female leader. Second, it would need to be the first at the Federal level, because Democrats had female leaders at the state level before that (e.g. Elisabeth Kirkby in NSW from 1981). And third, even given those qualifications, I don't think it's correct: what about Jo Vallentine and the Nuclear Disarmament Party? Peter Ballard 01:27, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Aha. Reading Nuclear Disarmament Party more carefully, Vallentine quit the party before she even took her seat in parliament on 1 July 1985. So Haines probably was the first female leader of a parliamentary Federal party. Peter Ballard 10:46, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The rule is that, to be recognised as a parliamentary party in the Senate (for privileged staffing allowances, etc), a group needs to have five or more senators. So the NDP would never have been a full parliamentary party with or without Vallentine. The Democrats and Greens at present don't have the status of Senate parties for that reason. Their senators are all technically independents and treated as such. This is not necessarily a huge disadvantage since Vallentine and the original Greens (WA) achieved significant staffing increases for independents. They can also get away with promoting the party name in press releases, etc, etc. They can also participate in informal party arrangements, such as whips' meetings and having parliamentary leaders who are not accorded the official entitlements of a leader's office. Haines did have those entitlements and was truly the first female federal parliamentary leader of an Australian political party. In the Democrats (at least as constituted in her times) Janine was never the leader of the party (at large)--she was the Senate leader or parliamentary leader to any who want to draw a longer bow. The party annually elected a national president who was/is the party's formal leader. Bjenks 15:22, 14 August 2007 (UTC)