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Parliamentary debates
Some interesting fragments
Senate
Richard O'Connor (NSW,
Protectionist Party)
" I see no reason in the world why we
should continue to impose laws which have to be obeyed by the women
of the community without giving them some voice in the election of
the members who make those laws. Their capacity for understanding
political questions, for thinking over them, and for exercising
their influence in regard to public affairs, is certainly of that
order and of that level which entitles them to take that part in
public affairs which the franchise proposes to give them. My view
is that the result will be infinitely to strengthen the means by
which we shall get a true record of the real opinions of Australia
upon all the different questions that will come up for settlement.
I have no fear but that the influence which the vote of women
throughout Australia will exercise will be, as it has been in other
parts of Australia where it has been tried, uniformly for the good
of the Commonwealth and in the interests of the best form of
legislation."
Senate, 9
April 1902, pp11451-2
Sir Josiah Symon (SA, Free
Trade)
"So far as I am aware [in South Australia]
there has been no increase, owing to women's suffrage, in any of
that incompatibility of temper which sometimes prevails. I am not
aware that it has ever been adduced, either as a ground of
petition, or as a ground of defence in the Divorce Court, that
difficulties have arisen and that desertion has been brought about
or cruelty practised owing to the introduction of the
suffrage."
Senate, 9
April 1902, p.11458
"There are many who will not go to the
poll, whatever inducements and persuasions are exercised. I suppose
that there is in the emotional character of women that which men do
not feel; an apprehension which may pass off that there is
something mysterious, something uncanny, about being on the
rolls."
Senate, 9 April
1902, p.11463
"I feel that the introduction of political
duties I put it that way into the ambit of their service in life is
overloading them, and is certainly not promoting woman's destiny at
its best."
Senate, 9
April 1902, p.11463
Edward Pulsford (NSW, Free
Trade)
" both my heart and brain act together in
antagonism to the principle of women's suffrage. I am not prepared
to describe women's suffrage as a blessing. I would rather describe
it as an attempt to throw a portion of the white man's burden upon
the white woman. I do not think that the interests of the States or
of the people will be promoted in any shape or form by the change
which is suggested."
Senate, 9 April 1902, p. 11464
"I believe that if we now decide to go in
for womanhood suffrage it will tend to the vulgarization of women,
and that none of us desires."
Senate, 9 April 1902, p. 11466
Thomas Glassey (Qld, Protectionist
Party)
"Only yesterday I heard a woman say that
she did not think it would be safe to confer this right on women,
because very dire things were likely to follow. It is also alleged
that women would be influenced by the clergy, by good-looking
candidates, and by young men."
Senate, 9 April 1902, p.11474
"Another reason which is sometimes
advanced against women's suffrage is that women do not understand
political questions. That argument presupposes that all men
understand political questions The old argument has been used that
the extension of the suffrage to women would take away their beauty
and their charm, and cause them to neglect their domestic affairs
it has been said that it would be a shame to invite women to go to
the polling booth, because sometimes there is a good deal of
rowdyism there."
Senate, 9 April 1902, p.11475
Albert Gould (NSW, Free
Trade)
"Then we come to the question of what has
been the effect of extending the franchise to women. Has it
purified Parliament in any degree? Has it improved the moral tone
of Parliament, and enabled the elections to be conducted better
than they were before?"
Senate, 9 April 1902, p.11477
Sir John Downer (SA, Protectionist
Party)
"I believe it will and must make this
difference, however, that it will give a vote to that down-trodden
class who, although they have been enabled, as the result of their
industry or from other causes, to acquire property, have never yet
had an opportunity of securing the representation to which, in
respect of that property, they are legitimately entitled. It is for
that reason, without speaking further, that I shall support this
bill."
Senate, 9 April
1902, p.11481
John Barrett (Vic, Australian
Labor Party)
"And although perhaps some of the States
are not prepared to extend the franchise to all adults, yet it will
be to the credit of the Federal Parliament that it achieved the
great reform."
Senate,
9 April 1902, p.11481
Staniforth Smith (WA, Free
Trade)
" this will be the first Parliament to
have universal adult suffrage for both Houses of the Legislature.
This Bill will not confer a favour upon the women of Australia, nor
a boon for which they should be grateful. It will do a simple act
of justice that has been withheld from women for many
years."
Senate, 9 April
1902, p.11484
James Stewart (Qld, Australian
Labor Party)
"The very men who say that giving a woman
a vote would degrade her, have not the slightest compunction about
making her a drudge. They do not regard it as degrading for a woman
to black a man's boots. Oh, no! It is not degrading for her to
scrub a floor or to be turned into a stuffy kitchen to cook for a
man, or to be put into a factory where she will have to work nine
or ten hours a day for a wretched pittance. None of these things
will degrade a woman, but to give her a voice in the government of
the country will degrade her! That is what the opponents of female
suffrage tell us."
Senate, 9 April 1902, p.11499
Simon Fraser (Vic, Protectionist
Party)
"How will the passage of this Bill bring
any more comfort to the home? I say that the passage of 50 such
Bills would not bring one atom of benefit to the home in this or in
any other country. On the other hand, in my opinion, it may create
discord. I do not say that it will have that effect, to any great
extent, because in 99 cases out of every 100 the wife will vote
with the husband, the daughter with the father, the sister with the
brother, and the effect will be only to multiply the family vote.
In my home I shall have ten votes under this system instead of
one."
Senate, 10 April
1902, p. 11558
Gregor McGregor (SA, Australian
Labor Party)
"Adult suffrage has been a plank in the
platform of the party with which I am connected from the inception
of that body, and every member of it has been gratified, not only
by the number of conversions they have made, but by the number of
partial conversions, a number having been almost compelled, if not
induced, to go half way in the acceptance of the
principle."
Senate, 10
April 1902, p. 11565
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