Transcript
LEIASMANU CULLWICK: We have a quota system in our municipalities that was back in 2012 and the government promised us that they would put this quota system into the provincial elections and also the national elections but they hadn't done so. So we said enough is enough. So it's time to voice the opinions so that's why we brought women all through four corners of Vanuatu together. And we all decided together unanimously that we need to give the petition to the government to say fifty-fifty get the balance right.
JENNY MEYER: And I understand that at the same time there are also plans for a new women's party, is that right?
LC: That is correct. After the conference closed the Coalition for Gender Equity in Parliament, a group of women who stood in the elections and didn't get elected, they formed this group and they came in and said we have decided that we need to have a party for women. So with the outcome statement the women also confirmed that we had to have a new direction. And this is where the Coalition came and said because we had all the women from Vanuatu at that conference it was good for them to launch the political party. So the Leleon Vanua Party was formed on the evening of the 18th of May 2018.
JM: That's quite a significant moment then. What's the reaction been to the request of the government and the formation of the new party?
LC: Our Prime Minister's just got back in from Japan late last night. So we are waiting for him to be back in office and maybe we will here further from the government on what its decision is on the statement to the Prime Minister's office.
JM: And the feeling from the women who like you say were gathered from all around Vanuatu, I guess it's quite a widely dispersed country and that poses some difficulty, what was their overall mood and feeling about the move?
LC: The women all decided unanimously that women have equal rights as the men and they need to be in decision making with the men. So the concerns of everybody at the meeting was it's now high time for the men to understand that we were created equal with them and also we have the right to sit with them to make decisions on how best to run this country to ensure that the future is safe for our children.
JM: I've heard that there are some male politicians there in Vanuatu who suggest that if the women there really got their act together they could already be in parliament if they had enough good people, they don't really need the quota system, what are your thoughts about that?
LC: Yes that's when we had the opening of the Forum and the conference and the Minister of Internal Affairs stated that we do not need reserve seats because our population is 49 per cent of the country. But as is the norm, men normally tell the women who to vote for. So the thought that we needed reserve seats, the government needs to do something.
