Represented by a legal team that includes Emrys Nekvapil SC, Dr Julian Murphy, Professor Kim Rubenstein, and the Women’s Legal Centre ACT, the Application seeks a declaration that the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) does not authorise the Australian Electoral Commissioner to refuse to accept their nomination on the basis that they are two persons making a joint nomination for the place of a single Senator.
“Our case is simple,” said Bradlow in a statement. “There is nothing in the law that precludes two people from running as one Senator. Indeed, the Constitution requires that senators be ‘directly chosen by the people’. If we were to read the Constitution literally we would only be allowed to choose men as our representatives.”
Bradlow and Bock launched their initial job-sharing campaign in April last year, when running for the seat of Higgins. They later pivoted to the Senate after Higgins was abolished in the Victorian redistribution.
“The fact that we were able to mobilise the support of 1,500 party members in just two months shows how much support there is behind this idea,” says Bock. “Voters want representatives that put their lives, families, and realities first. Australians are tired of the same old political games—they want leaders who genuinely understand their struggles, not politicians controlled by special interests.”
Bradlow adds, “Job-sharing is a well-recognised and utilised approach to bringing in a broader set of leaders in the private and public sectors. We will show that by allowing two people to share a single Senate seat, we can break down barriers that prevent people from participating in politics. This model could transform how Australians experience leadership, offering better representation and more effective decision-making.”
Backers of the pair encouraged them to not give up after the seat of Higgins was abolished in the Victorian redistribution.
“There’s a lot of people around us who said you shouldn’t give up. Because of the broader conversation [the campaign] is sparking about the way we work, and something that we’re into the way we work and the structures that have been created around the way we work – and build new structures that actually suit modern Australians” Lucy told Missing Perspectives in a previous interview. Determined to continue their campaign and work to restructure the way politics is done, they pivoted and set their sights on the senate, and launched their new party, Better Together.
Bronwen notes that they have held a number of kitchen table conversations, and town-hall style events. “We have lengthy question-times,” she says, “and people asking questions on job-sharing. They do have questions on job-sharing – whether it’s legal, has it been done. We answer them in a very straight forward way.” To address these concerns, the pair published a Frequently Asked Questions page on their campaign website.
Aside from sparking a conversation around job-sharing in Parliament, Bradlow and Bock have developed a policy platform based on action on climate change, sustainable action to ease the cost of living, integrity in government, and advocating for gender equality and women’s safety. The pair say that they are standing for policies that “put victims first, proper funding to combat domestic abuse and violence against women, and adequate funding for first responders.”
One thing is for sure – their case has definitely made waves in Australia’s political landscape, and we’ll be closely watching how the Federal Court of Australia responds.