Gender balance in Parliament reform : consultation document

Abstract

Government is committed to taking action as part of a series of reforms that are taking place under my auspices. The 2017 Labour Party Manifesto referred to quotas as a “positive measure”, which opens the way to a balanced representation of men and women in Parliamentary work. The manifesto proposes the initiation of a public consultation that would include concrete actions and procedural mechanisms. We see this as a core mission to make political decision-making more representative. This Consultation Document refers to “the under-represented sex”. Indeed, since the universal vote was introduced in 1947, we have seen women actively participating in grassroots politics and at the ballot box. Nonetheless, there is still a dearth of women candidates, and as a result very few sit in the House of Representatives. Throughout the years the “under-represented sex” has been female. This forward-looking Consultation Document strives to address this deficit and ensures that in the future none of the two sexes is under-represented. As politicians we are well-tuned to the demands of civil society, academics and media exponents, among others. We are aware that we must act in order to redress the gender imbalance in the House of Representatives. Let us call a spade a spade. The softer measures employed by the political parties in the past two decades have been steps in the right direction, but they have not yielded better results for women and so, as political leaders, we need to be conduits of change. Moreover, we need to strengthen the changes that have already occurred in our society where the equality of the sexes is not only expected by younger generations but is also the guarantee for their promised future. It is with this in mind that we embarked on a civil rights agenda that successfully changed the face of gender relations in Malta. I augur that we will achieve a broad consensus on this matter so that we will be, yet again, on the right side of history.