Julie shares 'girl power' with rural women

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash both spoke to the three winners of the inaugural Country to Canberra essay competition and the initiative’s founder, Hannah Wandel.

The visit coincided with a historic moment during question time in the House of Representatives, with women occupying four key leadership roles.

Ms Bishop and Tanya Plibersek both sat in the leader’s chair of their respective parties in the absence of Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten, who attended the funeral of cricketer Phillip Hughes at Macksville in regional NSW.

The two female leaders were also joined by regular Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and a female deputy clerk.

“There’s no end to girl power in Parliament House,” Julie Bishop told the country girls.

The Country to Canberra program was launched in July 2014 to help connect young female students from country regions with powerful female leaders.

A nationwide essay competition was conducted for Year 11 girls attending school more than 50 kilometres away from a city of 50,000 residents, with the winners earning a place in the Canberra sojourn to meet and greet empowering role models.

The 500-word essay competition asked the girls to analyse gender equality in their community with the key question: “Should more be done to empower women?”

The winners were: Hannah Worsley, 17, Nullamanna, NSW; Libby O’Brien, 15, Beaudesert, Queensland; and Vesna Clark, 16, Southern Highlands, NSW.

In addition to a behind-the-scenes tour of Parliament House, the trio also attended a special breakfast featuring ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, Labor Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann, Deputy Secretary of Defence People Rebecca Skinner and other powerful leaders.

They also held talks with SA Liberal Senator Anne Ruston, Queensland Labor Senator Jan McLucas and NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon.

Other experiences included meeting with Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and respective MPs from their home rural electorates, and others like SA Liberal Rowan Ramsey.

Ms Worsley is situated in the New England electorate of NSW Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, Ms O’Brien in the Wright electorate of Queensland Liberal Scott Buchholz and Ms Vesna Clark in the Throsby electorate of Labor MP Stephen Jones, in the NSW Southern Highlands.

Ms Bishop is considered one of the Coalition government’s leading performers in recent times, earning global praise for her efforts in the foreign ministry representing Australia in challenging diplomatic negotiations.

The WA Liberal MP praised the Country to Canberra winners saying she’d read their winning essays and found each one to be very articulate.

Ms Bishop said each essay had a different style and unique approach to writing about and conveying the subject matter in question.

“I can understand why you won; your essays were very articulate,” she said.

Ms Bishop also spoke to the teenage country girls about her experiences in a previous role, as the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues, working on a rural women’s leadership program.

She said rural women are regarded as the “backbone” of rural communities but stressed leaders are not born, “they are made” and strong female role models “are a must”.

“I hope this experience has inspired you to continue down the pathway of becoming strong female leaders,” she said during the meeting.

“You are all going to make a positive difference; go girls.”

Senator Nash posted her respects on Facebook after her meeting today saying, “great to meet winners of the 2014 Country to Canberra competition at Parliament House today. Inspirational young leaders with very bright futures.”

Ms Wandel said the competition had received about 100 entries and the trip to Canberra for the three winners had proved to be “an amazing and wonderful experience”.