Page 293 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 1990
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... the important fact is that for some years now, women's share of promotions into the SES (currently 18 per cent), has matched their representation at the levels from which those promotions were made.
Can the Chief Minister indicate whether or not the same proportions apply to the ACT Administration and, if not, in what way do they differ and why?
MR KAINE: All I can say, without some research, is that the ACT public service is still simply an extension of the Australian Public Service, and whatever the percentages were when we inherited the ACT Government service from the Commonwealth, as far as I know, still apply. There certainly has not been any action on the part of my Government - and I doubt whether there was any on the part of the previous one - to reduce the proportions of women in the senior executive levels, and so they remain as they were. I would add that it is this Government's policy to ensure equal opportunity and equity for women in the work force and if there remains any inequity, over time we will move to eliminate it.
Bicycle Helmets
MRS NOLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr Duby as Minister for Urban Services. Mr Duby, in view of the increase in bicycle accidents resulting in head injuries - the most recent, I believe, causing the death of a young Canberran - is the Government considering making the wearing of bicycle helmets compulsory?
Members interjected.
MR DUBY: The incident to which Mrs Nolan refers is, of course, a very tragic one and highlights the size of this problem. A primary goal of this Government is to reduce the number of ACT road accidents including bicycle accidents. Injuries to cyclists can be reduced by users becoming more willing to wear a protective device such as an approved safety helmet; this includes children in safety seats on the back of bicycles. The Government's road safety unit is pursuing a long-term strategy of improving helmet wearing rates by providing bicycle and helmet safety programs to all ACT schools and encouraging schools to organise bulk helmet purchases for students.
Such Government initiatives have helped to increase the ACT wearing rate for school children to over 30 per cent, a very gratifying figure. It must be brought home to teenagers, in particular, that their heads are more important than their hairstyles. In addition, the Australian Transport Advisory Council has before it a proposal to introduce compulsory helmet wearing uniformly
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