“Women’s” issues are once again playing a significant role in the election debate as Labor and the Liberals trade barbs over which parties’ policies will benefit women most. In the latest salvo, the opposition has announced a $90 million package to combat family and domestic violence.
However, perversely, the Liberals’ women’s policy may be being constrained by their very concept of equality. That conception worked very effectively in the Coalition’s successful populist campaign against the Voice referendum. Peter Dutton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price argued true equality involved treating everyone the same. They therefore claimed the Voice referendum was divisive and would give Indigenous Australians additional rights denied to non-Indigenous Australians.
In Dutton’s view, “egalitarianism” involves “pushing back on identity politics”. This in turn means emphasising people as individuals rather than as members of social groups.
