‘Reflects the community’: Victoria achieves gender parity among MPs for the first time

Victorian MPs - except for those from the Coalition - have gathered to mark the state’s parliament achieving gender parity. Photograph: Victoria Parliament

More than a century after the first woman was elected to an Australian parliament, Victoria has achieved a milestone that has been sought for decades: gender parity among MPs.

After the election of Labor’s Eden Foster in the seat of Mulgrave, vacated by former premier Daniel Andrews, there were 64 women and 64 men in Victorian parliament’s lower and upper houses.