Page 384 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 22 March 2022
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We continued our work to achieve our target for 10 per cent female employment in construction in the ACT. Significantly, since 2019 CIT’s trade skills programs have seen a 34 per cent increase in female student enrolments across all trade skills training areas. CIT construction has also seen a 75 per cent increase in female enrolment numbers since 2019.
I am pleased to advise that preliminary data on the ACT government Girls in STEM grants scheme suggests that the program has resulted in an increase in the confidence of girls to engage in robotics and coding classes, an increase in the number of girls attending STEM clubs, an increased proficiency in the engagement with technology and higher engagement in STEM competitions.
In the ACT we have been working towards the target of 50 per cent female representation on all ACT government boards and committees. I am happy to share with you that, as of January this year, 55 per cent of representatives on ACT government boards and committees were women. It has taken years of commitment to achieve this target and I am incredibly proud of this outcome.
We have also commenced planning for the future of the ACT Women’s Plan. This year we will begin consultations for the Third Action Plan of the Women’s Plan, which will be released in the 2022-23 financial year.
Madam Speaker, while there is much to be proud of as we reflect on the achievements of 2021, I encourage us all to remember that the women in our community are diverse and that intersectionality must be front of mind for all of us.
I would like to leave you today by taking a moment to reflect on the resilience and strength of women in the ACT. There is no denying that COVID-19 has created significant challenges for all of us. But what is clear to me, from the women we celebrated at the Women’s Awards earlier this month, to the women working in our hospitals, schools and testing centres, supporting the vaccine rollout and shouldering unpaid care work at home, is that the impact of women in the ACT is further reaching and more lasting than anything else we saw or experienced last year.
So thank you to the women of the ACT. You deserve your recognition.
I present the following papers:
Women and Girls in the ACT—Annual Statement on the Status 2022—
Ministerial statement, 22 March 2022.
Annual Statement—March 2022.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the ministerial statement.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (11.06): I thank Minister Berry for delivering her statement today. As she described, the impact of the pandemic has been felt very keenly and directly by Canberra women, because not only do women dominate fields
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