Why are there no women statues in the Parliamentary Triangle?

Or, to put it another way, there are now precisely zero statues of women or Indigenous people in the Parliamentary Triangle, while there is one dog and countless men represented in bronze, wandering about the place.

Most recent among them, an - admittedly charming - depiction of a whimsical Sir John Gorton, Australia's 19th prime minister, who lost to Billy McMahon in 1971.

In fact, last week marked 50 years since Gorton's political demise, an anniversary that was, understandably given the events up on the hill, barely noted.

The statue depicts Gorton sitting casually, hand on knee, with a genial smile on his face, as though he were recalling something pleasant, or had just finished an amusing anecdote. The aforementioned kelpie - Suzie Q - has her paws on the former PM's knee, and gazes up adoringly.

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It is entirely and majestically at odds with the current narrative now gripping the triangle, and the house on the hill that he once occupied (metaphorically - his tenure ended long before the current Parliament House opened).

While a statue of Gorton to commemorate his prime ministership is by all means an appropriate use of public funds, the timing for its unveiling couldn't be worse, as the government grapples with well-founded accusations of sexism and a general lack of awareness around how women are treated in public life.

It has been, in the words of the current Prime Minister, a "very deep and confronting conversation" the country is currently facing.

But Scott Morrison, who last week tried desperately (and ultimately unsuccessfully) to prove to the women of Australia that he "gets it", would only need to observe the gathering of bronze statues around Canberra's gracious public buildings to get an inkling of how the government comes across in real life and on a daily basis.

Sir John may well be a nice addition to the Triangle, and he and Suzie Q are certainly among friends. But it's all a bit repetitive and off-message to see so many men immortalised in our public spaces.

Why are there no women depicted? Why no First Australians? Even when the privately owned Canberra Airport Group proposed another bronze - of a slightly less traditional nature - to be placed at the top of Constitution Avenue, it came down to a choice between two men.

Some have already helpfully suggested a list of other groundbreaking and noteworthy people in Australian history who deserve to be immortalised in bronze, and included in the selfie shots of generations of schoolchildren to come.

Eddie Mabo and his wife Bonita, for the lifelong work in getting recognition of Indigenous ownership of the lands on which we meet.

Neville Bonner, the first Indigenous Australian elected to Parliament, or civil rights activist Charles Perkins.

Edith Cowan, who, 100 years ago last week, became the first female MP to sit in an Australian parliament.

Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons, the first two women elected to Federal Parliament.

Or even - and this suggestion has been made, and presumably dismissed, by many - Marion Mahony Griffin, whose beautiful renderings brought her husband Walter's architectural vision to life.

The list could go on and on, but what exactly would it take to have some bronze-cast diversity in the Triangle?

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