Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 706 ..
MR STANHOPE: Without doubt, the Smoke Free Capitals are the most successful national team in the ACT. They are playing this weekend in the grand final against the Adelaide Flames and we hope they win. They have within their number the ACT's greatest sportsperson in Lauren Jackson. There is no doubt about that. Yet women's sport in the ACT languishes in terms of sponsorship dollars, corporate sponsorship and media coverage.
There are a couple of other points I would make. I will not go into detail, but I endorse the comments made by Ms Tucker in relation to the need for a specialist women's policy unit within government. That initiative should not have been ceased and I would propose that the unit be reconstituted.
Earlier I made the point about the absence of women in politics, particularly locally. Federally, we do far better than the national average, with 75 per cent of our Federal members being women. Federally, parties generally, have achieved what we have not been able to achieve locally. I may have my dates wrong, but it is ironic that on International Women's Day, Chief Minister, I understand that you are facing your own little trial in the Belconnen branch of the Liberal Party tonight.
Ms Carnell: No, it is not tonight.
MR STANHOPE: It is not tonight? I have got the date wrong? I am pleased about that. I am pleased that at least the Liberal Party is sensitive enough not to attack its only female member on International Women's Day.
Ms Carnell: I would not go that far.
MR STANHOPE: She would not go that far. I was going to say that I thought it was because of unusual sensitivity in the Liberal Party that they were not seeking to unseat their leader and their only woman on International Women's Day, but perhaps that is not the reason. Chief Minister, we await with great interest the outcome of that little issue for you.
I will conclude on that point, Mr Speaker, other than to say that in relation to the discrimination suffered by women there is an awful long way to go. We have barely addressed this issue. It seems to me that there is always a constant one step forward and a risk of half a step back. We await the Attorney's response in relation to the funding of the Women's Legal Centre, for instance.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.
MR HUMPHRIES
(Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (4.25): Mr Speaker, I want to make a couple of comments on this matter. Ms Tucker raised some issues to do with the appointment of women to the prison community panel. I have heard the points that Ms Tucker raised. She sought the representation of two more women's organisations on the panel. I am considering the issues that she raised with me in the hearings conducted by the Justice and Community
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .