Page 3068 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 October 2022
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stigma is to talk about periods or even to just acknowledge them in the workplace. Formal education and awareness campaigns can facilitate this discussion.
Any additional leave entitlements or changes to such entitlements must be, rightly, bargained for between the ACT government and the ACT public service workers and their representatives. As such, there is no inclusion of a call to include such provisions for ACT public service workers in this motion. However, I think it would be prudent for the government to do the work to look at how it could be implemented if it were to be brought forward through the bargaining process. As such, the motion also calls on the government to report back to the Assembly on how such an implementation could be done.
Finally, the motion calls on the government to consider how existing provisions for other reproductive health needs, besides menstruation and menopause, could be enhanced. These include fertility care, pregnancy, miscarriage and termination of pregnancy. It is important to continue to examine policy settings for these reproductive health needs on an ongoing basis.
When women were first permitted to enter traditionally male industries and employment, they essentially had to pretend to be men and to not have caring responsibilities, including being married, to not fall pregnant, to not talk about reproductive care and miscarriage, to not discuss menstrual management and to not discuss menopause symptoms. To improve the emancipation of women, which has been fought for over decades, we must continue to improve our reproductive health policies in the workplace—in the ACT public service in this specific circumstance.
It is time for workplaces to adapt to women, rather than for women to continue to adapt to workplaces in which half of the population is employed. For centuries women were kept out of the workforce because of their reproductive roles in society and, while we have seen this change in what is still a relatively recent time, there remains much to do to achieve true equality in employment, including how to support women’s reproductive health in the workforce.
Acknowledging and responding to the impacts of menstruation and menopause is one more step we can take to support the full participation of women and people who menstruate across our workforce. People who are menstruating or experiencing menopause are not sick or injured, yet the only way they can get support at the moment to manage the impacts of their period or menopause is to treat them as though they are. It does not have to be this way, and we can do better.
Reform and progress when it comes to reproductive health is something that I am very passionate about. After decades of women struggling for equality within the workplace and equal pay, to remain in the public service once married, and for freedom from discrimination, we are finally at a point where we can have this conversation about reproductive health and begin to change workplaces to improve outcomes for all workers.
I am particularly pleased to be able to move this motion in this place today. As I noted earlier, my private member’s bill, the Period Products and Facilities (Access) Bill, is also sitting before the parliament. The actions in this motion and the implementation
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