Page 203 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 May 1989
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The Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Whalan, referred to Tuggeranong. As the Assembly is probably aware, I live out in the Tuggeranong Valley and I am certainly very concerned about the needs of that area, but I am also just as concerned for the women in Charnwood or in any other parts of Belconnen. I think it is probably very unfair just to discriminate in the area of Tuggeranong rather than take into consideration the outer areas of Canberra.
Mr Moore mentioned children playing with blocks. I have a boy and a girl and, believe you me, it depends on who is the older of the two children. Research might have been done, but children sometimes do prove research wrong. In my case it is certainly the reverse with my two children.
I think just in summing up, as I mentioned at the beginning, we are talking here about merit and fair competition. We are not just talking about token women for the sake of having token women.
MR JENSEN (4.11): In view of the time, I will try to keep my remarks as brief as possible. I know that at least Mr Stefaniak wishes to speak to this matter. In my discussions in the lead-up to this debate, there was some considerable concern amongst women about their economic independence and welfare and the poverty traps that many of them find themselves in. This is particularly the case in the area of Tuggeranong, and I take my colleague Mrs Nolan's point in relation to the fact that Tuggeranong is not the only area where there are developing suburbs. But I suggest that in Tuggeranong there are many young families moving in search of that great Australian dream: a suburban home with a backyard for their family.
One of the most tragic facts related to some of the major planning disasters in recent years in this city was that the previous Labor administration of this Territory allowed an explosion of office space in the city while throwing away the most important factor related to the rationale behind the dispersed town centre concept.
I am referring again to the need to create jobs, both full and part time, for the women trapped in their suburban homes in the Tuggeranong community, and I appreciate also in other areas of North Canberra. I applaud the comments made by Mr Whalan in his long answer to our colleague Mrs Nolan in relation to the movement of jobs to Tuggeranong, but what I am leading up to is that it is important that in the matter of major planning decisions for many years sectors of the community have not had a voice.
I would now like to change direction in this particular debate very briefly and refer to some of the deficiencies in coming to grips with the problem. I refer to the gathering of information on the matter of women in the national capital. For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics works on a sample of 1 per cent - hardly a useful statistical figure, I would suggest - when looking at this particular area.
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