Page 90 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 2018
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likely than men to have been sexually assaulted in a university setting. And the University of Canberra had five assaults on campus in 2015 and 2016. The ANU had 52 sexual assaults in 2015 and 2016.
We know from community surveys here in the ACT, Australia and worldwide the way women feel about safety in public places, especially at night. For example, the national survey of community satisfaction with policing revealed that 62.5 per cent of women do not feel safe while alone, walking or jogging in their neighbourhood during the night. This is pretty worrying and we need to get the government to address what practical steps can be taken to address this, whether it is better street lighting, CCTV, addressing blind spots, police presence, derelict buildings et cetera.
This is something that I know I have raised with the minister in the past. For example, in a question on notice in September last year, I think, I asked the Minister for Transport and City Services about lighting behind the CIT in Tuggeranong, a newly opened CIT in Tuggeranong. I had reports from locals as well as from the Tuggeranong Community Council about their fears about a lack of additional lighting in the car park behind that building. This was not long after the report about sexual assault at universities had come out. This is an area where there is still much to do.
It is important to look at many, many issues from the perspective of gender. And I know my colleague Mrs Jones has put a lot of focus on this in her work. She has looked at the lack of accommodation and work programs for women in the AMC. She has forced the government to address the topic of breastfeeding rooms in public sector workplaces. She has forced the government to look at the needs of women firefighters with respect to having portaloos onsite and has also talked about the small number of women who are employed in the fire brigade.
There are many things that are yet to be done. It is sometimes difficult to meet the needs of everyone. There is the emerging politics or agenda of gender which is rising in popularity and there is a need, absolutely, for a compassionate and fair response for people dealing with diverse gender identity.
One of the things that I have thought about quite a bit is the case of a female AFL player who sought to play in the women’s league and was not given permission. It is a really interesting case—the many pros and cons from those people involved in women’s football, those who are keen followers of the sport as well as various other stakeholders. It is not an easy topic, but it is something that we all need to think about and address in a compassionate and logical way. It seems sometimes that compassion and logic do not always go hand in hand.
But the struggle of centuries, which has been so important for women and men, over the economic, social and personal wellbeing of women is something that I think we here in this place all agree on and we have all been trying to work to progress that wellbeing for everyone—men, women and people of diverse gender.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Women and
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