Page 930 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
When the number of women working part time is taken into account, the gender pay gap increases from 17 per cent nationally to 33 per cent. The opposition tried to argue yesterday and today that income security is not a matter for this Assembly. With this information presented so clearly to them, I challenge them to argue that position again.
The ACT government has a long history of recognising women and seeing women in leadership roles in our community. Indeed our first ACT Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, was the first woman to be the head of any Australian state or territory, and we continue to celebrate that achievement. Since the ACT became a self-governing territory in 1989, the government has continued to have high numbers of women MLAs, women undertaking the role of Speaker and Deputy Speaker and a second female Chief Minister. We can now celebrate the achievement of being the first majority female parliament in Australia’s history.
Women have made incredible progress in this jurisdiction, but we still have a long way to go. Although we have a majority in the Assembly, we need to keep working and not assume that because we have a majority of females in here, all voices of females in the community will be represented. We cannot assume that a female majority in parliament, indeed in this Assembly, is the new norm.
The ACT government has a long history of recognising women and seeing women in leadership roles in our community. We also have strong leadership credentials in the ACT public service, with women making up 42 per cent of executive positions. While these examples of women in significant leadership positions are to be celebrated, we know that women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles across all sectors of the workforce and central decision-making positions across the country.
The ACT government is committed to maintaining the office for women as a central policy, strategic and coordination point for gender issues across the ACT government. Apart from developing the ACT women’s plan and the first action plan, the office for women undertake many other duties to support women and gender equality in the community. These include delivering the ACT women’s awards, administering a number of grant programs that are available to support women and promote gender equality, developing and implementing the ACT prevention of violence against women and children strategy 2011-17, and taking carriage of working with all directorates across government to develop action plans for each directorate to progress appropriate actions which support the prevention of violence against women in the ACT.
Gender inequality pervades every aspect of our society. It is absurd and baseless, but it is the case. As the government, we recognise how important the issue is and we are taking concrete steps towards gender equality. On that note, Madam Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to move the amendments that have been circulated in my name together.
Leave granted.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video