Representation is a fraught concept and practice in contemporary political life. Man – that is, the liberal humanist ‘average’ adult-white-heterosexual-able-bodied-male citizen who speaks standard English (Deleuze and Guattari 1980/1987: 105) – has been, and continues to be – decidedly over-represented. As Sylvia Wynter puts it, this Western bourgeois conception of Man ‘overrepresents itself as if it were the human itself’ (2003: 260). For Wynter, the ‘struggle of our times’ is ‘the struggle against this overrepresentation’ (Wynter 2003: 262). Samaa, the young woman of colour quoted above (by Issa 2021) – exemplifies the frustration at this over-representation of Man in politics. On 15 March 2021, tens of thousands of people across Australia rallied against gender-based violence, following a wave of allegations of historical and recent sexual assault by Members of Australia's Parliament and their staffers. This emerging national outrage was fuelled by the statements of Brittany Higgins, an ex-political adviser who alleged in February 2021 that she was raped in a minister's office in 2019. This outcry and these protests are evanescent expressions of dissent at work – people refusing those who claim to represent them, speaking and acting beyond sanitised forums in which they are invited by those in power to ‘have a voice’.

In Australia, it is well documented that the majority of elected political representatives come from white, middle-class backgrounds and are male. A report by independent think tank Per Capita sum-marises the ‘way’ to the Australian Parliament based on demographic data of federal Members of Parliament (MPs): ‘to be born male in Australia to a white family, attend a private school, get a university degree and then practise as a lawyer (if conservative) or work in a union (if progressive) before entering politics’ (Lewis 2019: 14). Even when more ‘diverse’ representatives are elected to formal political structures, these structures do not necessarily become more ‘inclusive’, nor produce better political outcomes for all constituents.