Article-International Women’s Day: Honour Roll Gender Gap
The Mercury | 9 March 2026; pg 5.
Honour Roll Gender Gap:
Call for More Women to be Nominated
Alison Foletta
Women are still under-represented in national honours, federal Assistant Minister for Women Rebecca White says.
In Tasmania, women only received 14 per cent of awards in the 2026 Australia Day Honours, just three out of 21 recipients.
On International Women’s Day, Ms White called on the community to lift up women.
“IWD is a moment to celebrate the achievements of women, but it’s also a chance to take simple, practical steps to lift women up,” she said.
“One powerful way to do that is by nominating a Tasmanian woman for an Australian honour to ensure her contribution is recognised.”
There had been an overall decline in women receiving national honours, despite more people being awarded.
For Australia Day Awards in 2026, 309 nominations for women were considered, compared to 737 nominations for men. Nomination success for women had improved from 2025 to 2026, increasing by 2 per cent to 59.5 per cent – but it still sits below the men’s success rate of 67.3 per cent.
Jackie Brown OAM has used her award to lift up other women. Ms Brown said agriculture was “such a male-dominated industry”. As a teacher, she used her growing network to put young women in contact with role models in the field.
Ms Brown said when women were honoured for their expertise, it showed “what (women) could achieve.”
“One of the things I’m most proud of is as I went towards retirement there was a class of agriculture students that was 50-50 girls and boys,” she said.
“We’ve got five fabulous female agriculture teachers in the state and three agronomists.
Also on IWD, independent MP Meg Webb challenged the government to provide a comprehensive gender impact statement detailing the fallout of public sector job losses.
Speaking on Sunday, Ms Webb said there should be no more “selfcongratulatory backslapping” on International Women’s Day.
Ms Webb said while the state government had started to address gender inequality by developing the annual State Budget Gender Impact assessment, it needed to be “turbocharged”.
“I am calling on the government to commit to providing a comprehensive state budget gender impact statement detailing how any cuts to services, funding or jobs have been assessed for potential impacts on women, girls and gender-diverse Tasmanians,” she said.
Tasmania’s Minister for Women Jane Howlett said the government had delivered the annual gender budget statement.
“The statement analyses key gender equality data insights to reveal trends occurring across the state,” she said.
“It also analyses a selection of prior budget initiatives to understand their impact on Tasmanian women.”
