0:00

Ready and... This is the daily odds. This is

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the daily odds. This is the daily odds. Oh,

0:05

now it makes sense. Good

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morning and welcome to The Daily Odds. It is

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Friday the 26th of April. I

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am Billie. I'm Zara. In

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a first for Australia, two women

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have launched an independent campaign to

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win a single seat at the

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next federal election. Bronwyn Bock

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and Lucy Bradlow hope to run together

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for the same seat and share the

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responsibilities of a single federal politician. Bock

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and Bradlow will contest the seat of

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Higgins in suburban Melbourne. And in today's

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episode, I interviewed them to ask them

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all the questions that I'm sure you

0:46

are thinking right now. But first, Zara,

0:48

what is making headlines today? Five

0:53

young people have been charged following

0:56

a joint counterterrorism team operation in

0:58

Sydney. According to New

1:00

South Wales Police, the young males

1:03

are facing a range of charges,

1:05

including possessing extremist material and engaging

1:07

in an act of preparation for

1:09

a terrorist act. All

1:11

five were refused bail by the Children's Court.

1:14

New South Wales Police have confirmed that there

1:16

is no specific threat to public safety. 26

1:21

pilot whales have died and more than 100 are stranded in

1:24

Western Australia's southwest. Parks

1:26

and Wildlife Service, WA, has asked the

1:28

community to stay away from the beach

1:30

and the water. It

1:33

said, based on previous strandings, these events

1:35

usually result in the breached animals having

1:37

to be euthanised as the most humane

1:39

outcome. At

1:42

least 32 people have died and 40,000

1:44

have been displaced in flash flooding

1:47

in Kenya. According to

1:49

the UN, the rainfall is expected

1:51

to persist across various regions in the

1:53

country, with heavy downpours expected. Communities

1:56

living in flood-prone areas have been advised to

1:58

move to higher ground. And

2:03

today's good news, the US Department of

2:05

Transportation has issued new laws that make

2:07

it easier for travellers to get a

2:09

full cash refund if their flights are

2:11

delayed. Under the new scheme,

2:13

customers are entitled to refunds if there is

2:15

a delay of more than three hours for

2:18

a domestic flight and more than six hours

2:20

for international flights. There

2:22

are also mandatory cash refunds for lost

2:24

bags and all refunds must be paid

2:26

in under seven days. So,

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like I said before, these two women have launched this campaign to

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job share the role of

3:08

a single federal MP. And

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I think the idea of job sharing is

3:12

something that we have heard a lot of

3:14

in corporate Australia, this idea that some people

3:16

will want to do a single role but

3:18

they'll only want to do two days and

3:20

then another person will maybe do three. So,

3:23

it's common in corporate Australia but

3:25

not in politics. Until

3:28

now with these two women wanting to try

3:30

it. And like you

3:32

said Zara, this has been really big news this

3:34

week because it's something, as I've said, we've never

3:36

seen it before. And I'm sure that

3:38

Zara, you had lots of questions about it, I had

3:40

lots of questions about it. So, we

3:43

put those questions to Lucy and Bronwyn to answer

3:45

them. Just a heads up, the

3:47

audio on this interview is not the best.

3:49

We had a few technical difficulties but I

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hope you can still enjoy this episode. Bronwyn

3:54

Burke and Lucy Bradley, thank you so much

3:56

for joining The Daily Oz. Thanks

3:58

for having us. Thanks Billy. Let's

4:00

start with the very basics. I'm interested,

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how did this idea for you two

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to try job sharing the role of

4:07

a single federal MP come about? I

4:10

spent most of my career working in and around

4:12

politics. I know what the nature

4:15

of the job is like and I know

4:17

how demanding it is. I know that I

4:19

think it could be doing better if it

4:21

was done in a more collaborative and kind

4:24

way. I also spent the last

4:26

two years working at the workplace gender equality

4:28

agency and in that role I

4:30

saw how many workplaces around Australia

4:32

and around the world are adapting

4:34

what a leadership role looks like

4:36

to make it more inclusive. That

4:38

includes things like bringing in flexible work

4:41

and including job sharing roles. I thought

4:43

why couldn't parliament do the same thing?

4:45

Bournemouth and I have a great desire

4:47

to serve our community and to have

4:50

an impact on our community

4:52

and make sure that they have the best

4:54

possible representatives at the federal parliament level. I

4:57

approached Bournemouth and said, what do you

4:59

think about doing this together? Bournemouth,

5:01

the response from you? Yes, when Lucy

5:03

approached me with the idea of campaigning

5:06

as a job share for the seat

5:08

of Higgins in the next federal election,

5:11

it was such a no-brainer for me to say yes. I strongly

5:14

believe that parliament should be like

5:16

any other workplace where job

5:18

sharing and flexible working options are

5:20

available to all people. I'm

5:23

a mum of three small children,

5:25

so it's something that

5:27

I've come up against, the concept of trying

5:29

to marry flex work and leadership throughout my

5:32

career as an investment banker and then more

5:34

recently doing board roles and

5:36

things like that. It's no small feat, it

5:38

hasn't been for me and for so many

5:40

people around me, I see them trying to

5:42

marry leadership and flex work. It's

5:45

not just for parents

5:47

of small children, it might be someone caring

5:50

for an elderly relative or maybe someone with

5:52

a disability, being regional or a rural

5:54

community that is willing or able to

5:56

work full-time. This is about bringing a new

5:58

crop of people. through Parliament to make

6:00

a good fit. And so in

6:03

reality, what could this actually look like

6:05

when it comes to sharing a single

6:07

salary that a federal MP has or

6:09

when it comes to the sitting weeks?

6:11

What would that look like in personality?

6:13

Yeah, so the way we

6:15

propose doing it is a week on and we hand

6:17

over at the end of each week. And

6:20

so we split the costs evenly, totally down the

6:22

middle. That would allow us to be able to

6:24

travel to Canberra for

6:26

the whole week or for the four days, it would

6:28

mean that we would never have to divide the sitting

6:30

week. And it would

6:32

mean that everything would be able to be

6:34

completely shared. You know, I think we see

6:36

in workplaces now, there's so many new technologies,

6:38

there's so many ways of sharing information and

6:40

we'd have a really sophisticated system

6:43

to be able to share information with each

6:45

other and make sure it's a seamless transition

6:47

between the two of us. And Billy, just

6:49

to add to that, we've been speaking with

6:51

people who job share in the corporate world,

6:54

in the broader public service over the last

6:56

18 months and understanding from

6:58

them the best practice on how it

7:00

works. So what Lucy and I are

7:02

confident with is that we've got a

7:04

really effective and efficient way

7:06

to represent the people of Higgins,

7:08

our community, and to

7:10

represent them effectively as one member

7:13

for Higgins, but just doing it

7:15

together. And I'm sure when you

7:17

guys came up with this idea, you thought about

7:19

so many different examples, but just one that I

7:21

thought of is if it was a sitting week

7:23

and let's say there was a really contentious bill

7:25

in front of you and you weren't sure which

7:27

way you were going to vote and then you

7:30

were communicating with the other, what should we do?

7:33

Does that kind of defeat the purpose

7:35

of job sharing if the other person

7:37

is constantly needing to be in conversation

7:39

about how you two are going to

7:41

vote as one? Look, I

7:43

think we're not naive to the fact that there'll be

7:45

a little bit of work in the week off and

7:47

we might have a phone call here and there, but

7:49

also politics works fast and slow. These

7:52

bills come in, you have weeks to think about

7:54

them, you have weeks to get information on them.

7:56

In our conception, we'll have lots of time to think

7:59

about them, debate them. get information

8:01

from experts, consult with community, put

8:03

that information, an idea about

8:05

how we're going to vote on it and then the person

8:07

who's in Parliament that way will vote on it and I

8:09

think we can do that pretty seamlessly. Now

8:12

you both said that there is no legal

8:14

barrier to job sharing the role of a

8:16

federal MP. As I'm sure you've heard a

8:19

few constitutional experts have pointed out that section

8:21

57 of the Commonwealth

8:23

Electoral Act does state that one

8:25

member of the House of Representatives

8:27

will be chosen for each electoral

8:29

division. What's your response to that?

8:31

Well, we are one member. Our response to

8:33

that is we are going to be one

8:36

member for Higgins. It'll be

8:38

two people acting as one member

8:40

but there's nothing in the institution

8:42

that refers to a single person

8:45

or a one person. It just

8:47

says one member. And Billy,

8:50

we're getting constitutional legal

8:52

advice from our brilliant lawyer

8:54

Kim Rubinstein and it

8:56

is her view that there's an Australian law that

8:58

prohibits two people running on one ticket. And

9:01

if your nomination form isn't initially accepted,

9:04

will you escalate it to the High

9:06

Court? Yes, absolutely. And then it

9:08

will be for the High Court to decide.

9:10

It won't be different lawyers

9:12

applying on this. We have a decision for the

9:14

High Court. We believe that it is possible. We

9:17

wouldn't have been working on this project together for

9:19

18 months and probably another year

9:21

out or so for the election. There's a

9:23

lot of work that's gone into this and

9:25

it's a lot of passion and drive to

9:27

create real structural change. So

9:30

we believe there's a real path forward and we're excited

9:32

to push it all the way to that it takes

9:34

us. We've also been holding kitchen

9:36

table conversations with the people of Higgins. And

9:38

like you, they've had a lot of questions

9:40

about how this would work. But as we

9:43

talk them through it, they

9:45

start to understand that and all of a

9:47

sudden, their mind then goes to, oh, and

9:49

then there's a whole of benefits here as

9:51

well. You're bringing two sets of skills and

9:53

experience to the role. And in that way,

9:55

we cannot feel like we're almost being better

9:57

represented. And so there's a lot of interest from

9:59

people. and support from people in our

10:01

community for this concept. I think the

10:03

first question that a lot of people

10:05

had when they heard about this, apart

10:07

from the legalities around it, is what

10:09

if there's a big argument? Well,

10:12

we're doing this together because we have

10:14

fundamentally the same values and core beliefs.

10:16

We've been friends for 30 years. We've

10:19

been working on this project together for the

10:21

last 18 months. We don't see there being

10:23

a huge argument. There will be disagreements over

10:26

things for sure. And in that case, we

10:28

will discuss it and we will just debate

10:30

it and we will continue with experts and

10:32

come up with the best answer for the

10:34

community. So you're

10:36

running for the seat of Higgins in Melbourne, as

10:38

you mentioned. What has the initial response

10:40

from the community been? I

10:43

think Bronwyn talked about the fact that we've

10:45

been doing these kitchen table conversations, which have

10:48

been absolutely fantastic. And an essential part of

10:50

our campaign is that we're community-backed candidates. We're

10:52

Higgins people. I grew up there.

10:54

Bronwyn's lived there for the last 10 years.

10:56

And these conversations have been great because there's

10:58

been an opportunity for us to hear from

11:01

people, what they think about Higgins, what they

11:03

would like to see improved about Higgins, what

11:05

they'd like to see improved about politics in

11:07

general. And I think that one of the

11:09

things that we keep coming up against is

11:12

people wanna see a difference in power.

11:14

They wanna see a difference representing

11:16

them in federal politics. They're tired

11:18

of the two-party system. They're tired

11:20

of politicians just bringing out

11:23

party lines and being beholden

11:25

to vested interests. They wanna

11:27

see real representation. They

11:29

have questions, as we said, about how job sharing

11:31

would work. But once we explain it to them,

11:34

they're really happy with the idea. They're

11:36

excited by two sets of ideas and

11:38

two sets of experience. And they are

11:40

more interested in having real representation at

11:42

the federal level than they are in

11:44

how people are doing it. And

11:47

just lastly, if you do get in, what

11:49

are the issues that you both are most

11:51

passionate about? We stand for

11:53

real action on climate change.

11:55

Targets alone won't reduce our

11:57

carbon emissions. We also stand for...

12:00

for sustainable measures to help people with the

12:02

cost of living crisis and integrity

12:04

in politics and Parliament is also a

12:07

really important one for us. I know

12:09

Lucy and I strongly believe that if

12:11

we are in we should only be

12:13

representing our issuance and not vested interest.

12:16

Bronwyn Bock and Lucy Bradlow thank you so

12:19

much for joining the Daily Oz. Thanks Billy.

12:21

Thanks Billy. Thanks so much for

12:23

listening to the Daily Oz. If you're listening

12:25

on Spotify or Apple we would love you

12:27

to hit follow so that there is a

12:29

new episode waiting for you every

12:31

weekday morning. Have a fantastic weekend and

12:33

we'll be in your ears again on Monday. My

12:39

name is Lily Madden and I'm a

12:41

proud Arandah, Bundjalung, Calcutta woman from Gadigal

12:43

country. The Daily Oz

12:46

acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on

12:48

the lands of the Gadigal people and

12:50

pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

12:52

Strait Islander nations. We pay our respects

12:54

to the first peoples of these countries

12:56

both past and present.