SECRET WOMEN’S BUSINESS

In 2002, Treasurer Peter Costello asked Australian women to have more babies: “One for mum, one for dad and one for the country”, and so do our bit for the economy. Perhaps he was striving for his own ‘Team Australia’ moment.

At the time, I was at the start of a 10-year climb that would take me from the most junior political Opposition staffer position to a senior adviser role in the Prime Minister’s office. I found this announcement staggering. As a young(ish) woman at that time, I’m sure I wasn’t alone in asking whether growing the population really was the only activity women could do to help the national economy.

Nearly 20 years later, in the face of a major recession, we are going around again. Our current Treasurer has repeated Costello’s call for a “baby-led recovery”. Now, running my own successful strategic communications agency from Byron Bay in regional New South Wales, I thought: “Huh, wait, what?! Are we still here, asking women to stay home and reproduce? No!”

“We need more women with a voice in those