(호주) 진보적 성향의 여성 국방장관

출처: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34311240

9 hours ago: September 22, 2015

Australia defence minister good fit in Turnbull cabinet

By Wendy FrewAustralia editor, BBC News online

The New South Wales senator describes herself as a progressive Liberal

If you want an insight into Australia's first female minister for defence, Marise Payne's inaugural speech to parliament is a good place to start.

The senator from New South Wales delivered a confident and articulate speech about her political passions and her vision for Australia.

A true child of the Liberal Party - she joined when she was 18 and held several important party positions before entering the upper house at the age of 33 - she said her bedrock beliefs were based in the rights of the individual and their enterprise.

Throw in her desire to see more women in parliament, an Australian head of state, more done to protect the environment and a greater interest in young Australians at risk of suicide - and a picture begins to develop of a Liberal who would sit comfortably in a cabinet run by Australia's new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

"I look to a future Australia that is proud of its diverse and varied community," she told the parliament in 1997.

"A future Australia should be a nation free from discrimination against any individual. Discrimination against people based on their gender, their race, their sexuality, their religion, their HIV status or their education does not belong in our democracy," she said.

Anticipating criticism from "right-wing media commentators about political correctness" Senator Payne said this was "not a statement about women's rights, gay rights or minority rights; rather, it is about human rights".

Senator Payne joins eight other women on Mr Turnbull's front bench

Eighteen years later, the senator from Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands has been sworn in as Australia's first female minister for defence, an appointment that has been mostly welcomed inside and out of defence circles.

She joins four other women in the cabinet and another four in the outer ministry.

Tough portfolio

The Australian Defence Association (ADA), an independent watchdog and think tank on strategic security, was pleased.

"Too often defence has been forced to take ministers who are in the twilight of their parliamentary career and they've only stayed very short periods and she's the exact opposite of that," ADA executive director Neil James told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"There's only about 10 people in all of parliament who have a genuine interest in defence issues and Marise has had a long standing one, and that's a great advantage," he said.

Defence is one of the toughest of cabinet portfolios and has seen off a revolving door of ministers in recent years, few of whom have been interested in the job or capable of achieving any significant change, say critics.

Many of Senator Payne's predecessors have struggled with the portfolio

Her appointment also comes at a critical time, a week after Australia extended its air strikes against Islamic State group targets in Iraq into Syrian territory.

Senator Payne must first come up to speed with a major defence strategy paper due for release in a few weeks' time. Experts say the strategy will emphasise regional defence engagements and local construction of the navy's fleet replacement programme.

Among the issues she will have to contend with are:

• The alleged inefficiency of the government-owned building defence company, the Australian Submarine Corp
• Debate about whether to build surface and submarine ships in South Australia or offshore
• A deeply embedded culture of sexism in the Defence Forces

Republican

Away from defence, many of Senator Payne's concerns and interests align with her new prime minister's, such as her support for Australia becoming a republic (she was previously a deputy-chair of the Australian Republican movement - Mr Turnbull was once its chair). Like Mr Turnbull, she studied arts and law at university.

Mr Turnbull on Monday described her as one of the government's most experienced and capable senators.

"She has spent two years in the human services portfolio and has done an outstanding job in modernising government service delivery," he said.

A nod to literature in her inaugural speech - she quotes Patrick White, one of Australia's most acclaimed but least accessible writers - also strikes a Turnbullesque note.

"Madam President, there are few good things written about politicians but many challenges issued to us," she told the Senate.

"The great Australian writer Patrick White issued this challenge in his poem Nine Thoughts from Sydney, an appropriate selection perhaps for a senator from New South Wales. He wrote:

Where is the politician who will flower like the leptospermum citrata,

Who will sound like the surf out of the Antarctic.

Who has in his hands the knots of coolibah,

And in his soul the tears of migrants landing from Piraeus?"

The Australian public might not be familiar with the Latin tag for the country's lemon tea tree and it remains to be seen what it makes of its new defence minister.