Thread by @c_s_wallace

🧵 'Cometh the hour, cometh the women. For so long, men in suits have dominated the public realm, but wherever you look now the leaders shaping debates, nudging policy and making decisions are women.'

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'It’s as though Australia emerged from the manosphere after the May election into a different world altogether. One where summoning a mental picture of a cabinet minister is...'

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'One where summoning a mental picture of a cabinet minister is just as likely to conjure a woman in a stylish lemon-yellow pantsuit as a suited man wearing a blue tie.'

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'But the change goes well beyond parliamentary politics. An extraordinary network of women has unleashed a co-ordinated campaign to structure policy across the workplace & welfare landscape ahead of this week’s #JobsSummit in Canberra.'

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'A joint interview with @unionsaustralia secretary @sallymcmanus & @BCAcomau chief @JAWestacott on @InsidersABC on Sunday, in which they discussed the future of Australia’s industrial relations system, crystallised the moment for many.'

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'Instead of two blokes representing labour and capital going at each other hammer and tongs, two women had a calm, reasoned exchange and identified areas of agreement.'

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'The backdrop was a joint Business Council-ACTU statement on shared economic goals ahead of the summit, which starts today.'

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'Journalists and academics gathered on Sunday afternoon @CanberraMuse, a favourite #CBR coffee klatch, were agog.

'How to explain the civil and constructive exchange between the union boss and the business boss?'

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'A young male journalist put it down to McManus’ and Westacott’s personalities.

'An older male journalist, who’d been round the block, wised him up: “It’s because they’re women!”

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'On Monday, three women from different spheres publicly declared agreement on overlapping business, labour and welfare interests ahead of the summit.'

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'Westacott, ACTU president @MicheleONeilAU & acting ACOSS chief executive Edwina MacDonald held a joint press conference at Parliament House backing full employment, and announcing shared dot points on how best to get there.'

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'Then on Tuesday two women publicly declared a shared small business and union interest in reintroducing enterprise bargaining as an option for small businesses.'

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'COSBOA chief @boyd_alexi & McManus announced their agreement to explore multi-employer bargaining & simpler tests for approving pay deals.

'That concord was the last straw for the stomping (male) dinosaurs of the business lobby group world.'

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'The male-led ACCI and AiG recognised they’d been outmanoeuvred & drew the BCA into a last-minute “united front” to push for contentious issues to be sorted out after the summit, not in it.'

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'But it was too little, too late. Distressed dinosaur calls were audible in Canberra from outflanked, old think business lobby groups.

'It’s the 21st century, guys. The women have arrived. At least the BCA is up with the game.'

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'Federal parliament reflects this underlying shift too. The 2022 poll was a “genderquake” election.'

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'Labor, the Greens and the teals all have more women than men in their party rooms. If not for the fact that women constitute barely a shade more than a quarter of Coalition MPs, the federal parliament would be majority female.'

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'Even accounting for Coalition tardiness, 44.5 per cent of MPs in the parliament are women. The 50/50 metric is tantalisingly close.'

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'A different type of masculinity is on display from key men in power as well.

'Replacing the blustering boofhead types dominating the Morrison government is a thoughtful, conversational, engaged style typified by @AlboMP & @JEChalmers.'

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'Cabinet is full of powerful women like @SenKatyG , @tanya_plibersek, @SenatorWong & @ClareONeilMP. With 10 of cabinet’s 22 ministers being women, they are not exceptions anymore.'

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'It’s showing up in key government appointments too.'

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'Former High Court justice Virginia Bell is conducting the inquiry into Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries, and former Queensland Supreme Court justice Catherine Holmes is in charge of the robodebt royal commission.'

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'This shift is not confined to the progressive side of politics.'

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'The community indies who won half a dozen formerly blue riband Liberal seats are all women – small ‘l’ liberals who've set up home on the crossbench, partly because of the knuckle-dragging chestbeaters they perceive in the Coalition parties.'

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'Female Coalition frontbenchers are playing a big role in the media post-election. Liberal deputy leader @sussanley is at least as prominent as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in day-to-day politics when parliament isn’t sitting.'

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'Controversial resource sector giant Woodside Energy has a female chief executive: Meg O’Neill.'

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'It's good to pause, note and appreciate what a moment this wave of women in the public realm represents.'

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'We haven’t become a utopia overnight, but the content & brilliant co-ordination of the women who outflanked the dinosaurs in the run-up to this week’s summit is a case in point. There’s going to be a lot more of this & that’s a very good thing.'

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