AUSTRALIAN WOMEN IN POLITICS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11988, 15 September 1904, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN IN POLITICS.

The.parfc tiiat women are playing in Anetralian poiitke ie worthy of, note. WonW of .legal age entitledi to vote for jnembenr of the Federal Senate

and Hone* of Bepresestatlyeis, although in Victoria and .Queenaland they awetill debarred from «z«rca«Dng the" vote afe ekctione to the State Parliaments: ~ The women , * v*te w proving • very r imc«rtein factor in party politics. It is to have largely increased the Labour vote in tihe Federal ahd to haive also helped thei jteform at

the recent New South. Wales election*, where the Labour candidates were, generally speaking, pitted against the B*. lortam, led by Mr Can-other*. In South Australia the vote has again had a distinctly sobering effect .upon political affaire, and it has checked somewhat) the aggressive socialism -which chancterimi the Labour movement in other* of the States. The feeling in Victoria hitherto has been largely antagonistic to -women votexs, the opposition being Very apparent in the country' electorates, where it wae feared that the enfranchisement of women would inoreaee the voting power of the cities out of all proporlionr to. that of the country constituencies. There hae been, too, a disinclination on the part of a large section of the women' «f Victoria to claim ,the privilege. Latterly, hower«r, a new movement has come into play, with the.formation of the Australian Women* National League, the primary object of which ie "to preeerre,- as far ac possible, "amid changed political «arroundmg« and

"increased political reeponsibilitieei, tboe* " chafacterkUcs which are dew to the great "majority of women." The leaden of the movement., state that they " neither ."aspire: to «t«r,P»rii«n«ijt>.nor to irave a "banner, in iW front ranks, of ;ti» *„»&

[" vmjwdsisterhsod.' » 'Tβ teaok .Women "to use the rWfel*. jrteffifenUr? w the* I fin* 'object' aimed at H«lf the votine powsr of .ths OmaottwsalUi is-io tbt hud* of the womm of and la [ order thai it maybe used loyally and La* , tellifsnUy, and in the best interest. «f tiU Empire and of th* States thu—liss, women -who have hitherto held woolly aloof from political affair* am bow coaiag to ther fronts The. chief plank* of the League's platform atfs. ths recognition of the fact that "toe intonate of Australia "are bound up with Imperial interest*," in opposition to the "advanced legislation "of the present* day, which is tsminstwd "with open antagonism to the British con"section or thinly veiled sneers at erery"•thing the connection represent*," end active opposition to' State socialism, the advocates of which have been busily en-

gaged schooling their womeokind to vote for the nominees of the party. The Victorian League is extending its operations to other of the States. Queensland already has a National Liberal Women , * Union, which is-working on similar lines, and by the further extension of the organisation it is hoped to largely influence the potrtios of the future.