THE HON MELISSA PRICE MP MINISTER OF DEFENCE INDUSTRY
Interview with Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price Afternoon Agenda, Sky News, Kieran
Gilbert
23 March 2021
KIERAN GILBERT: Now, let's bring in Melissa Price, now Minister for Defence Industry. As you have
reflected on the last month, not just the last 24 hours, which you've had more shocking revelations
and so on. What's your thinking when it comes to quotas now for female representation.
MELISSA PRICE: I think it is time for our party to have a very serious conversation. The men and
women in our party about what we do about increasing women's representation in our party. We know
that in the business world, studies have shown that the more women you have on your board leads to
greater profitability. So if we can take our lessons from the business world of someone of 30 odd
years, in the business builder, I think I think that's a great place to start. But quotas aren't
the only answer we actually need to be attracting women to our parties, and in Western Australia,
my home state, we've really started that journey with women. We've got some very good women that
we've been nurturing, mentoring, and unfortunately not too many of them got up, as you would know,
through the state election that we had a few weeks ago. But our challenge now is to keep them in
the fold and to keep them interested. And that's what I'm dedicated to.
KIERAN GILBERT: It actually makes political sense as well.
MELISSA PRICE: Absolutely.
KIERAN GILBERT: Beyond just the humanity of having a decent workplace and having people understand
that everyone was treated equally. It makes political sense because you win more votes. It's half
the population.
MELISSA PRICE: Yeah, but you know, the good decision making happens when when the whole of society
is represented around the table.
KIERAN GILBERT: But they're not at the moment.
MELISSA PRICE: No, they're not.
TRANSCRIPT
KIERAN GILBERT: There’s been a lot of talk from the coalition, but-. What do you need to break
through? I mean, you're saying a conversation. What's your instinct telling you if you want to see
quotas now?
MELISSA PRICE: Well, I think we have to have that conversation, and women can't be the only ones
asking for that. This is the problem, exactly what we're talking about here with the dreadful
accounts of what's been happening in this workplace that I work in, and in many workplaces around
the country. We all need to have this conversation because it's too long. It's been categorised as
a woman problem. Actually, it's a men problem, and it's a woman problem. It's the whole of society,
and we just need to be better. No, it's not just about getting more women around the cabinet table.
It's a much broader conversation than that.
KIERAN GILBERT: It is a broader conversation. But the fact is, if you have more women around the
room, around the building, around the culture, surely that improves the equity-
MELISSA PRICE: Of course.
KIERAN GILBERT: - Of the culture. Because at the moment, quite frankly, the PM says others that,
you know, have got answers to their own cultures. But it's the Coalition's culture that we're
talking about repeatedly here.
MELISSA PRICE: Yeah, that's right. And what I'm very pleased about, and I haven't had any feedback
yet, but I know that the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and the Treasurer have just met
with all of the coalition staff. I said I haven't been briefed on it yet, but I have no doubt that
there was some very significant messages delivered during the course of that meeting. And what I
would like to see, Kieren, is that in every building and every business around Australia that
leaders of those businesses are doing exactly the same thing. If they haven't done that recently,
well, it's time that they did that because we cannot just focus on what's happening in Federal
Parliament. I know that's very convenient for the media. It's very convenient for the Labour Party
to politicise this, but frankly, I've moved on from that.
I represent the largest electorate in the land. I represent regional and rural women, and they are
crying out to be respected, to be safe at home, to be safe on the street and to be safe at work,
and we've all got a responsibility.
KIERAN GILBERT: The Prime Minister said that he's listened- he’s been listening, his process, and
it was quite a powerful speech he gave. And then later, in the news conference with Andrew
Clennell, my colleague, he seemed to say, “well what about the media?”, and that raised some issue
that we’ve ascertained. It’s not related to Sky News or it's not related to any assault or
harassment claim. It’s bullying claim and the PM throw that out there. I don't want to go in any
more detail because obviously we don't know whether the person at the centre of that- how they want
that dealt with. But what do you make of the Prime Minister's comment there?
MELISSA PRICE: Well, clearly it was a very emotionally charged press conference by the Prime
Minister and by others that were sitting around there. And so we're at this point where we're
picking on various words or phrases. We've got to get past that, and the Media's got a role to
play. And I think we've got a division. So I’ve got to go.
KIERAN GILBERT: You do. You’ve got to go. Thank you for coming up.
MELISSA PRICE: My pleasure.
** End of transcript **