Four candidates in this month’s State election went straight from the classroom to the campaign trail and one could become the 100th woman elected into the Queensland Parliament.
The quartet are among 14 graduates of QUT’s Pathways to Politics for Women program contesting the October 26 poll.
Program director Professor Vicky Browning said for Linda Barry (Qld Greens), Claire Carlin (ALP), Kristie Lockhart (Qld Greens) and Lisa Baillie (LNP), moving directly from the course onto the campaign trail would enable the women to put the power of the program into practice.
“These women really want to make a difference and want to see politics done differently,” Professor Browning said.
“They are already very capable, but this program has upped the game. It transforms women.”
She said the strong State Election turnout followed success at the local government level in March, where 26 program graduates campaigned across Queensland, with 13 elected to councils, including two mayors.
Professor Browning said former and current Queensland politicians, of all political persuasions, gave their time to the non-partisan program this year.
“All conversations and training sessions were conducted under the Chatham House Rule to allow for honest, revealing insights to be shared in a protected environment.”
She said Queensland trailblazers, including the first female Lord Mayor of Brisbane Sallyanne Atkinson and the first female leader of a political party Joan Sheldon, were among the politicians who shared their lived experience of political life with the latest cohort.
Since the first Queensland parliament was convened in 1860, there have been 98 elected women.
