Page 3750 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 23 November 2022
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St Vincent de Paul to drop off some very nice dress shoes. It was a very difficult thing to do to say goodbye to those shoes, and I hope that they went to a good home. I just wanted to take a moment to thank my colleagues for their kindness and to reassure Mr Parton that it was simply the mention of shoes and not the important conversation about male suicide that upset me. I want to reassure him that I am not in any way holding him accountable or responsible for that.
I think that, while his characterisation of my response to Ms Castley’s motion overall was grossly inaccurate, it is very important that we talk about this issue. It is important that we talk about suicide in this place. It is important that we talk about the impacts that it has. In that context, I also want to take the opportunity to thank Mr Cocks for sharing his own experiences. These are, of course, experiences that too many share in our community, more so in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and more so in the LGBTQIA+ community, but right across our community.
I just wanted to put on record that I am in no way wanting to shut down debate on that issue. I thank members for their contribution in relation to that and, again, thank my colleagues for their kindness.
Women—WiSDM
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (5.56): I rise to speak about a lovely event that was held here at the Assembly last night. I was privileged to host this event for an organisation named WiSDM, which is an acronym of Women in Strategic Decision Making. WiSDM helps to support women in strategic decision-making by creating a network for them to come together to share their experiences and learn more about strategic decision-making.
Before the event we had a panel discussion which included some of our parliamentary colleagues: Elizabeth Lee, Yvette Berry and Jo Clay. The panel focused on why gender diversity matters in politics. The panellists shared some of their own personal experiences in which gender has influenced their strategic decision-making and their career overall—indeed, their journey into politics. The discussion was moderated by the WiSDM founder, Belinda Newham, who my team and I were lucky to have the pleasure of working with to organise this great event.
We had a number of very insightful and difficult questions from the floor, and thoughtful contributions from all panellists. There was a wide range of attendees. I was also pleased to see a number of men present and supporting local women in politics and women in strategic decision-making. I will name a few, very quickly: Lisa LaMaitre of Canberra Wise Women; Victoria Pearce from Endangered Heritage; Zoe Rose of Great Question training; Tim and Macca from Lids4Kids; Rebecca Lubilanji from Harvest Hope Africa; Clare Harris; Irene Lennon; Caitlin Holder; Julie-Anne; Jerry; Craig Fairweather, who is the CEO of the Millhouse Ventures; and many, many others.
Everyone I spoke to afterwards found the discussion engaging and took something away—something different in most cases—from each of the panellists. So thank you, once again, to Ms Lee, Minister Berry and Ms Clay for their time and contributions
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