Page 747 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2018
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Many will recall that during the 2016 ACT election the Labor Party made a number of election commitments to strive to get more women and girls back into sport. Since the election, of course, these commitments have been turned into programs on the ground through initiatives funded in recent budgets. The very idea of providing sporting grants to women and girls works hand in hand with the work we are doing right now across Canberra to create more opportunities, more fairness and to drive true equality.
The government’s agenda is an equality agenda. In my portfolio areas alone we are doing vital work in education, housing, women’s policy, family safety policy and sport and recreation policy. All of the work in these areas is seeking to drive fairness and equality right across the city. As the government has developed its approach to this work that I have just mentioned—in education, sport, housing and women’s policy—it is obvious to me that when we listen to the ideas coming straight from those who are impacted, straight from the members of our community, we can better develop an agenda that will make a real difference on the ground.
In many past statements in this place I have spoken repeatedly about the government’s commitment to achieving gender equality. Of course, again today I reaffirm that commitment. What I have said many times is that this is a challenge that needs to be taken on by every part of government, in private enterprise, in the community and in the home. I would argue that it needs to be embraced by all sides of politics.
This year the government, together with the Ministerial Advisory Council on Women, will get stuck into further implementation of the women’s plan. We will continue our work that allows us to reach out to many champions for gender equity, both men and women, to keep this work on track and continue to show the national leadership that is desperately needed.
After two years of particular emphasis in the prevention of domestic and family violence and in the sports portfolio, the government continues to make further strides in this important work. In the sport portfolio, 2018 is the year that we will see delivery on a range of commitments that the government has made towards gender equity. My focus as minister will be on further improvements to sporting amenities to make them safe and inclusive for everyone. I have just recently announced a series of new grants for this purpose.
At the national level, the ACT has been pushing hard for the need to agree on clear targets for growing participation and promoting gender equity in sport. This might seem unimportant to some people in this place, but it does give all of us across the country the chance to strive to do better around gender equality in sports. I will continue to do my best, through my portfolios, to contribute to this work.
I spent much of my first year, in 2016, talking with the sports community about the needs that they had. We would all agree that Canberra sporting clubs are full of community champions and volunteers who make a great contribution to this city. These are also people with great ideas about equity and inclusion and how sport can be used even more to grow these things.
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