Bronwen Bock (left) and Lucy Bradlow propose to job-share the role if elected in the federal seat of Higgins. Photo: Bradlow + Bock for Higgins.
Two community-backed independent candidates in Melbourne have launched a campaign whereby they propose to job-share their role as member for the federal seat of Higgins if elected.
Long-time friends Lucy Bradlow and Bronwen Bock say they will bring the best possible representation to Higgins in a job-sharing role.
“We believe the people of Higgins deserve representatives that stand up for them in Federal Parliament,” Ms Bock said in a statement announcing their campaign launch.
“We stand for action on climate, cost-of-living relief and integrity in politics. We have spent time talking to members of the community and hearing their desires for a fresh take on the most important issues of the day.”
Ms Bock is a strategic consultant with a background in investment banking.
Ms Bradlow said they were creative thinkers who believed that things needed to be done differently to achieve better results.
“We have over 30 years of friendship and share deep trust and respect,” she said.
“Individually, neither of us is able to take on the out-of-hours or travel demands of being a full-time federal politician. But together, we bring two sets of skills and experience, fresh perspectives, and new energy to the role.”
Ms Bradlow is a communications consultant who was most recently the head of communications at the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The two candidates propose to work week-on, week-off, with a handover at the end of each week. They say the model will ensure costs are split evenly and there are no more expenses than if the seat were held by a single member.
“We are confident we can work together collaboratively for the benefit of the people of Higgins,” Ms Bradlow said.
Ms Bock added: “Job sharing is tried and tested in the private sector and civil service – we are advocating for Federal Parliament to be like any other workplace.
“We want to show that politics can be done differently for a more inclusive Parliament and for better representation for Australians.”
But apart from being elected, Ms Bock and Ms Badlow may have to overcome a constitutional hurdle to fulfil their job-share ambitions.
Constitutional expert Professor Anne Twomey says there is no provision in the constitution for a member of the House of Representatives to job-share. Photo: Screenshot.
Professor of constitutional law and director of the Constitutional Reform Unit at Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney, Anne Twomey, said the proposal to job-share a federal MP role would seem to be contrary to the Constitution.
“The constitution treats a member of parliament as a person rather than an office that can have its duties fulfilled by more than one person,” she said on her Constitutional Clarion YouTube page on 21 April.
“For example, before a member of parliament can sit or vote in the House, Section 42 of the Constitution requires that person to be sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives.
“It does not permit two or more people to be sworn in as a single member.
“Equally, all the provisions in the Constitution that concern qualification, disqualification and resignation are directed at a single person being qualified, disqualified or resigning.
“The Constitution simply does not contemplate a member comprising two or more persons who are subject to different qualifying or disqualifying circumstances.
“While Bradlow and Bock have stated that if one of them resigns or becomes disqualified, that would mean that both of them would be … there’s nothing in the Constitution or the legislation that actually addresses the issue, because both the Constitution and the legislation are predicated upon there being a single member who is an individual person.”
Higgins was once a safe Liberal seat, but is currently held by Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah, who defeated the Liberals’ Katie Allen at the 2022 federal election. It was previously held by former prime ministers Harold Holt and John Gorton, by former Howard government treasurer Peter Costello, and then former Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison government minister Kelly O’Dwyer.
The Greens also polled strongly in the seat in 2022 and helped Ms Ananda-Rajah secure the win through the distribution of preferences.
