A Papua New Guinea parliamentary committee looking at gender issues has voiced support for creating reserved seats for women in parliament.
Charles Abel Photo: UNDP
The Special Parliamentary Committee on Gender-Based Violence has recognised the towering challenges to women getting into parliament where there are currently no female MPs.
The committee said temporary special measures are required for women in advance of the 2022 general elections
The Committee chairman, Alotau MP Charles Abel, expressed the committee's support for this proposal at this week's hearing into gender-based violence.
He asked the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive, Ivan Pomaleu, what the government was planning to do to support getting more women in leadership.
Pomaleu said the government had proposed five regional seats for women in parliament.
But he admitted it was uncertain whether this provision would be created in time for next year's elections.
A decade ago, a proposal for 22 reserved seats for women in parliament, or one for each of PNG's provinces, narrowly failed to gain the required two-thirds majority support among MPs.
Pomaleu said a cabinet discussion paper on the idea of regional seats for women had been submitted, with the outcome being more work needed to be done to bring the proposal back to Cabinet.
While admitting a lack of "clear visibility" on the issue, Pomaleu told the committee Cabinet would have a formal discussion on it.