Page 2947 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 September 2006
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30 August the minister held the first women’s summit, which we are told will be a biennial event. The media release says that members of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Women and representatives of peak women’s organisations discussed a range of issues that impact on the lives of women in the ACT, with a particular focus on affordable housing and domestic violence.
Would the minister advise the Assembly which peak groups were invited and how they were selected and explain why the Women’s Electoral Lobby was not considered to be one of these?
MS GALLAGHER: The representation at the women’s summit was a matter for the ministerial council on women. They hosted the forum. I attended the forum, but they did it as the ministerial council. The council determined the invitation list. I met with the council, I think three days before the summit, to go through the agenda. That was the first time that I had any idea who the attendees were. I have to say that the council, through the chair, Hilary Russell, did an excellent job in selecting a range of organisations to attend the first summit.
This was the first summit. The council decided that, in the first instance, we needed a fairly small group of organisations so that the summit did not get lost in how many people attended, so that we could have a focus and so that everyone could have the opportunity to participate. The summit was of only three hours duration. From memory, there was a range of organisations there, and I am happy to give Dr Foskey the full list.
There were a number of women’s specific organisations that were not invited. I can probably give Dr Foskey a list of them as well. We tried to get a selection of organisations that cover key areas of the ACT women’s plan, such as women’s safety. There were a number of organisations that work in the area of domestic violence. ACT Shelter was focusing on affordable housing and homelessness. I am trying to remember who else was there.
The representation was pretty much half and half. I think all the chief executives from the service delivery agencies in the ACT government attended, so you can see that it was treated very seriously at that level. A number of members of the ministerial council on women, but not all of them, attended. I know that there is always someone that does not get an invite who feels that they should have got an invite. It was an attempt in the first instance to have a fairly focused group spend three hours determining priorities for the government in relation to services for women.
It was a positive event, and it should not be turned into anything other than a positive event that clearly will provide the government with key advice on areas where further work is needed to enable it to target policies and strategies to support women in the community. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay for the whole time. I found it a very productive meeting, and part of that was because there were probably around 20 participants.
DR FOSKEY: I ask a supplementary question. Would the minister outline how the meeting’s discussion of the impact of the shortage of affordable housing on women will be fed into current government efforts to address the issue?
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