Tuesday 12 June 2012 marks the 110th anniversary of the
Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, the law that granted most Australian women the right to vote, and therefore to stand, in Commonwealth elections. The Act stated that ‘all persons not under twenty-one years of age whether male or female married or unmarried’ would be entitled to vote in Commonwealth elections. It excluded Indigenous men and women, unless they were eligible to vote under state laws in accordance with
Section 41 of the Australian Constitution. Across Australia, women voted for the first time in the second Commonwealth election held on 16 December 1903. Women in South Australia (who were granted voting rights in 1895) and Western Australia (1900) were eligible to vote in the first Commonwealth elections held in 1901, since these were conducted under state laws. Four women stood as candidates for election to the Commonwealth Parliament in 1903. They were the first women nominated for any national Parliament within what was then the British Empire, although none of the women were elected.
