Queensland Greens Senate candidate Larissa Waters says that being a mother is no barrier to success in politics.
30-year old Ms Waters says she'll be having children, whether she wins or loses, and she doesn't expect them to hamper her career.
In a YouDecide interview to be posted later this week she was asked for her response to Julia Gillard's claim that Tony Abbott would not have succeeded in politics if he'd been the mother of his children.
"Certainly there are barriers to women in the
workplace, but they’re getting addressed, and the more women in parliament you
have, the more these barriers will continue to be addressed."
Ms Waters rejected suggestions that at 30 she doesn't have enough "life experience".
"Well I don’t have any children yet and I don’t
have a mortgage so I suffer from not being able to empathise with people who
are in that situation, but I’ve been on a low wage for a long time so I’m very
aware of the financial difficulties that are imposed by those sorts of
trappings."
"I’ve been working with the community for six
years...unlike some politicians who’ve maybe worked in other offices
of politicians and sort of lived and breathed politics. I think that means you
don’t have life experience."
Ms Waters also offered support for Democrat Andrew Bartlett, despite acknowledging that they were likely to be competing for the sixth senate place.
"If I'm unsuccessful I would hope that Andrew Bartlett is elected in my stead."
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