“I think this is a vitally important issue,” Ms Burke said in Wodonga.

“At the moment, we’re lagging and we shouldn’t be,” she said.

“We’re one of the first countries in the world to give women the right to vote and women the right to stand for Parliament.”

The member for the Melbourne electorate of Chisholm made her comments after attending an event hosted by the Labor candidate for Benambra at November’s state election, Jennifer Podesta.

Ms Burke was the speaker in the House of Representatives for the year before last year’s election.

She said Julia Gillard - who this week testified at the royal commission into union corruption - would be remembered as “a phenomenal prime minister”.

“I’ve got a great deal of respect for Julia and what she did in that space,” Ms Burke said.

“She had to deal with a hung Parliament but we still passed legislation, we still held inquiries, we still did many good things in the international space.

“Yeah, there were some issues, but there are always going to be some issues when there is a hung Parliament.

“I think history will treat her much kinder than how some have viewed her now.”

Ms Podesta said the event, which she hosted at Cafe Grove, was a chance for people to hear first hand from a leading politician.

“A handful of Labor people were there but we opened it up to the wider public,” she said.

“If we want to get regional issues on the table at the federal and state level, we have to bring people like Anna into the area to talk about issues and put issues on the agenda.”