Page 3839 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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MRS CARNELL: Mr Connolly, I was quite honest about that. The issues that we, as women in politics - and certainly Mr Connolly does not seem to be too interested in that - have to address include getting on with the job and making sure that we do not continue with this rhetoric. I find it really unfortunate that we are nearly at the end of the International Year of the Family and women in the workplace who have children are no better off; women working part time who have children are no better off; and, possibly more importantly, women who still choose to stay at home and look after their children are certainly no better off. The blame cannot be taken by this Assembly alone; the Federal Government has done nothing. Lots of words have been said, but absolutely nothing has been done. It will be interesting to see whether the Labor Party, those opposite, do put a woman into the third Federal seat, to see whether they are a little bit more than just all words.
Mr Connolly: We will be more successful than you were in trying to get a woman in the Belconnen seat.
MRS CARNELL: You have a quota, Mr Connolly; you have said categorically that you have rules; 35 per cent of all people in winnable seats will be women. If you are going to be more than all talk and no action, we will see a woman preselected, I suspect, for the next election.
MR KAINE (8.59): Madam Speaker, I must say that when I sat down and analysed the statement made by the Chief Minister in connection with this conference I felt that I had been sold short. I think that the average woman in our community who read that statement would feel that she had been sold short also, because the emphasis seems to be on the place of women in politics and in the public service. What we have here is a statement that says, "We are doing just great in terms of the status of women, because in this place we have a certain percentage of women and in the ACT Government Service we have a certain percentage of women". That puts women down to the status of being ciphers in the public service and politics. If that is all there is in terms of the status of women, then we have certainly come a long way!
I do not believe that that is what the status of women is about at all. I do not believe that the women in the suburbs, with their families and their husbands - going about their business of seeing that their kids get up and go to school in the morning; making sure that dad gets to work; and that when he comes home at night there is a place for him and for his family - are concerned at all about these things that the Chief Minister has concentrated on. To say that these are the measures of the importance of women in our community is, I submit, Madam Speaker, absolute rubbish.
Where in this statement is there anything at all about the average woman who is not concerned about working in the ACT public service and is not concerned about standing for public office in the Legislative Assembly? What does this document say about them? It says two things about them. It says that you are one of two things; either you are the victim of violence or you are the carer of somebody that needs your support and attention. That is not the typical woman; it is not typical of anything.
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