Political Parties

It’s a historic day for politics and women in Australia – and even more remarkable for one woman minister, who is also Queensland’s first ever Indigenous woman MP.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet marks an Australian first, with a majority of women ministers: eight women (including the premier, who is also arts minister) and six men. And the leadership team of Palaszczuk and her deputy, Jackie Trad, is only the second time two women have led a state government.

Women are conspicuously absent from the cabinet of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. They have traditionally been underrepresented in Greek politics, but Syriza was different. Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens.

"Greek society exhibits one of the lowest levels of women in positions of power and socio-economic decision-making in the EU," wrote Maro Pantelidou-Maloutas, a political science professor at the University of Athens and the author of "The Gender of Democracy: Citizenship and Gendered Subjectivity."

Opposition challenger Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has become the first female president of Croatia, winning by the narrowest of margins.

She secured 50.5% of the vote with 99% of ballots counted, while incumbent Ivo Josipovic was close behind on 49.5%.

Mr Josipovic has conceded defeat and congratulated his opponent.

The challenger's win is a sign that Croatia may be shifting to the right after the centre-left coalition's failure to end six years of downturn.

Nearly all progress for women has come from Labour, yet the election may depend on the deputy leader’s efforts to get them to the ballot box. Those who don’t vote don’t get. The young vote least and they get least, so the old voters are showered with blessings by the Cameron government. New research from the House of Commons library shows women are voting less and less: 9.1 million women failed to vote last time and at each election the gap between women and men voters has grown wider.