With two weeks to go before the New South Wales election, things are not looking promising for Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Polls released over the weekend are pointing to a potential change of government, with the Labor opposition leading the Libs by a slim but definite 51-49.
So it looks like Team Gladys are throwing everything in for the final fortnight of campaigning – including just making s**t up.
A “personal touch” video released on March 10 on the NSW Liberals’ Facebook page shows the Premier looking relaxed in a totally non-rehearsed way and talking about her favourite reality TV shows – and it also features a caption singing her praises.
Including the tidbit that she’s “[t]he first female Premier of NSW – chosen on merit.”
The comments, of course, are full of people pointing out that not only was NSW’s first female premier Kristina Keneally (2009-2011), but that Gladys actually rose to the position unchallenged when Mike Baird resigned – whereas Keneally won a party room vote against two men after a leadership spill.
.
There’s a lot of chat about whether quotas for women in political roles are appropriate or helpful. People who are against the idea of having a minimum number of women mandated in certain positions or on ballots argue that it might mean women who aren’t that great will get jobs over more qualified men.
Of course, this means that those people think there are generally more qualified men than there are women – but that’s another whole can of worms.
It’s not great to see the state branch of a party notorious for its issues with women on the federal level implying in official advertising material that only some women in power are there because of merit, and that the others must be, y’know… less merit-y.
Keneally’s party definitely had its issues at the time too, let’s not get it twisted. But trying to play the empowerment card here is pretty hilariously transparent.
Here’s the full post:
