Call for Tonga to bring in quota for women MPs

Transcript

A Tongan scholar says now is a good time for her country to introduce a quota system for women parliamentarians.

Sulia Makasini is writing a paper on how an interim quota system might work while in Australia under the Pacific Women's Parliamentary Partnerships Programme.

Tonga's legislative assembly has only one woman MP, Ana Taufe'ulungaki, and she was not elected but appointed by the prime minister.

Ms Makasini, a committee clerk for the assembly, told Annell Husband that ideally Tonga's parliament will be
50 percent women.

SULIA MAKASINI: Because the issue of having a quota system is still very controversial in Tonga, not just in Tonga, but also regionally and internationally, I think a proposed system will have to consider that and be introduced subtly in such a way that people will gradually understand and realise the importance of having women in parliament. And so the system... There is a 30% benchmark as the critical mass for having women in parliament. So the system can start with introducing a certain number of women that meet that benchmark, but it could also be less than that.

ANNELL HUSBAND: So you're not envisaging it as being a permanent thing?

SM: I believe it won't be needed on a permanent basis. I think the main barrier right now is getting women into parliament. So the quota system is supposed to address those barriers, to put women in parliament as a practical demonstration to Tonga, not just for Tongan women, but the Tongan public in general, that women are capable of performing there. So that's the fast track. The incremental track would mean that there needs to be public awareness and civic education and all that, which I think should still be part of the process, as well. But in terms of fast-tracking the situation, the quota system would address that and I do believe that it won't need to be permanent.

AH: And what chance do you think there would be of getting legislative change through parliament?

SM: I think that there's a very good chance for it, particularly at this point. Part of the reason why I believe that an interim quota system is timely to be addressed at this point for Tonga is because Tonga has been undergoing political reforms since 2010. So we are in a transition phase moving towards democracy. The king has invested a lot of his autocratic powers. So the experiences of quota systems around the world show that countries that are undergoing reform or are going through post-conflict situations, this is the time when women are mobilising or advocacy groups are bringing up women's issues. So the timing I believe would be right about now, considering that we have elections at the end of next year, 2014. So we have the rest of this parliamentary term, and also the parliamentary term next year, to be able to propose and lobby around this issue, so that by the time the 2014 elections are in place hopefully these systems and these frameworks are in place to accommodate an interim quota system.