Victoria’s first Indigenous Labor senator, Jana Stewart is spearheading a new affirmative action quota in the hopes of diversifying the Labor Party to reflect Australia’s population.
The proposal will be discussed at the party’s national policy platform conference in August where it is expected to attract support.
The quota will require the party to select culturally diverse and Indigenous candidates in an effort to increase the number of MPs from non-English-speaking backgrounds.
In Australia, almost 30 per cent of people were born overseas and almost half have a parent born overseas, according to the 2021 Census of Population and Housing.
Senator Stewart, who was the youngest First Nations woman to be elected in Federal Parliament, told the Herald the proposal will extend the party’s existing gender quotas and bank on their multiculturalism.
“In this day and age, it’s unacceptable not to reflect our community,” she said. “The Australian community want to see their leaders look more like them.”
“It’s an opportunity for the party to be leading the way when it comes to representing the community we serve.”
Senator Stewart, a first-term senator, added that despite the success of gender quotas in accomplishing gender balance within the party, “they haven’t worked for multicultural communities and First Nations communities.”
“Women and men of colour have been left behind; it’s time to undertake the work to address the gap,” she said.
The Age reports that Stewart’s proposal is yet to define ‘diversity’ or explicitly state the quota figures, though the Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba Senator hopes to apply the policy across all levels of the party, including its rank-and-file base and internal positions.
“I’m keen to add a colour lens to all that we do and doing the internal work is just as important as anything else we do,” she said.
On top of the new quota, the party’s conference will also debate other policy proposals to determine Albanese government’s election platform, including Australia’s foreign and defence policies, the AUKUS submarine deal and the issue of recognition of Palestine.
According to The Age, a draft of the national platform will be finalised by the party’s national policy forum in Sydney next week.