Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (7 March) . . Page.. 728 ..

MRS CROSS (continuing):

In 1921 Edith Cowan became the first woman elected to an Australian parliament. Two years later women could sit on juries for the first time. The first birth control clinic was set up in Sydney in 1933. In 1941 the Child Endowment Act became law and provided a weekly child allowance directly to mothers. Two years later Dame Edith Lyons was the first woman to enter the House of Representatives and shortly after became the first woman to become a cabinet minister.

In 1961 the law was changed to remove double standards regarding the grounds for divorce. Here is a good one: in 1966 the bar on married women as permanent employees in the federal public service was abolished. In the same year Senator Annabelle Rankin became the first woman in the Commonwealth ministry with a portfolio.

1972 was another red-letter day for women, when the principle of equal pay for work of equal value was adopted. This came after 60 years of repeated attempts. However, few women were able to benefit from the change at that time, because men and women worked under different awards. Unfortunately, equal pay for women is yet to be fully achieved in this country.

In 1973 paid maternity leave was granted to women in the Commonwealth public service. Legislative recognition of a woman's traditional work in the home was given in the division of assets on divorce in 1975, the same year the first discrimination laws were passed in an Australian parliament.

Another defining moment was in 1976, when Joy Mein became the first woman president of a major political party-the Liberal Party, naturally, Victorian branch. The following year 12-month maternity leave was granted to all permanent workers. This decision guaranteed continuity of employment following leave for the birth of a child.

1987 saw the establishment of important women's health measures such as national breast screening and cervical cancer pilot projects, a national domestic violence education program and the introduction of family allowance supplement. For the first time, women surpassed men in participation in higher education, and school retention rates for girls exceeded those for boys for the first time.

This Assembly has had two women Chief Ministers-Rosemary Follett in 1989, the first female head of an Australian government, as my colleague Ms Gallagher pointed out, and Kate Carnell in 1995. In 1996 Senator Margaret Reid became the first female President of the Australian Senate.

Does all this historical achievement mean equal opportunity has been achieved in this country? Unfortunately not. Each of the achievements I have mentioned was gained only after a great struggle, sometimes violent struggle, often over a protracted number of years.

On some fronts there is still some way to go. True equal opportunity for women in employment has not yet been achieved. I hope to introduce legislation at some stage this year to partly address that in this jurisdiction.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .