Our Centenary of Women’s Suffrage
Some of UNA’s efforts:
- Checking that names are on the rolls: ‘Now, sisters dear, why this “mighty pother” over an act which is simplicity itself? All you have to do is to go to the nearest post-office, suburban or country, and ask to see the electoral roll. You were probably visited by a smiling policeman some weeks back, who made a note of your name, accompanied by a facetious observation; but a policeman may “smile and smile” and yet be a villain-to the extent, at least, of mangling your name and address hopelessly beyond recognition… don’t rely wholly on his efforts… go to the post-office and make quite sure you don’t figure under some fancy title, which your own mother wouldn’t recognise.’ (If the name was not found on the roll or was incorrect, the Daily Telegraph offered assistance with filling in the required form and sending it in.)
- The importance of voting: ‘Don’t think that harvesting, or cooking, or Christmas house-cleaning, or making Christmas presents, or going to your boys’ school-breaking-up, or any other ordinary duty is to come before the one paramount duty of citizenship- the duty of going to the polls. Remember, you have only ONE DAY OF POWER. And-even at the cost of leaving your family dinnerless, and the ironing undone, and the carpets unshaken, …you should go to the polls! But you need not take such extreme steps, for, by the exercise of a little forethought, you can arrange matters very well. Work a little harder on the 15th, and that will leave the 16th, the sacred Sixteenth, free! You know, you often do this when you want to go to a race or to a picnic! Why not for a matter of such supreme importance to the home, the State, and the Commonwealth as the recording of your vote?’
- Choosing the cause: ‘Surely the issues of the Federal elections are of vital importance to women, as well as to men, to the home, to the future of our sons and daughters, to the State, to the whole Commonwealth. For the great question of national prosperity is involved in the Federal elections; and to this issue women, who are citizens, as well as housekeepers, dare not turn a deaf ear. And to ensure prosperity they must of necessity vote for a freetrade candidate.’
- The last rally: ‘Remember that the act of voting is simplicity itself. If your name is down on the Federal electoral roll, YOU NEED NOTHING MORE. The ballot papers will be given you at the polling booth. Go as early as possible in the day so as to avoid crowds. Every woman knows the name of the selected FREETRADE CANDIDATE in her electorate-the candidate for the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-and you can easily put a cross against his name. Leave the other names severely alone.
Make no other mark or the paper will be disqualified. Do nothing but put a X against the name of your Freetrade Candidate.’ - In NSW there was also a referendum on the size of the State Parliament. The Telegraph supported the reduction to ninety members (as described by UNA -‘the minimum allowed us in the referendum by superior man’). UNA therefore urged that ‘women should make up their minds to cast a solid vote in favour of the minimum number 90…. Impress that important number on the minds of all around you- male as well as female. See that your husband, or your lover, or brother, or any other man you can influence, is sound on the subject of 90.’
In January 1904, UNA was investigating again, first the Sydney Medical Mission, followed by ‘The Cure of Alcoholism’.
This material was originally produced in 2003 by the Office for the Status of Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
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