I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 741 standing in my name, relating to the representation of women in the Indian parliament.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate

(a)

recognises that only 10 per cent of seats in India’s Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s Parliament) are held by women;

(b)

congratulates India’s Rajya Sabha on passing the first stage of the historic legislation seeking to impose a 33 per cent quota for women in the nation’s federal and state assemblies; and

(c)

notes that Prime Minister Singh has stated that the legislation is ‘a giant step towards empowering women’.

Question agreed to.