Extracts of these interesting interviews are included here with kind permission from Susan Mitchell, Janine Haines, Amanda Vanstone and Natasha Stott-Despoja. Susan Mitchell began her interview with Janine Haines by asking about the future feminisation of politics or rather, the possibility of it. Certainly some women are put off going into politics when they see how women politicians are treated, but there are equally many men who are put off when they see how the men in politics are treated. Janine did not believe that as soon as there was a certain number of women in parliament everything would be fine, but she thought that at least with more numbers in caucuses and party rooms women would be in a better position to influence the agenda. She was scornful of the idea that the quota system won't work because women who enter on the basis of their gender will be less highly regarded.
Nobody worries whether the blokes are the right blokes.
Some of the biggest male dorks are hanging about, not just on the back benches but the front benches too. There are blokes who couldn't get up without somebody else having written a speech for them. Even then, they couldn't read it properly. I'm not joking. But nobody says anything about that.