Page 1310 - Week 05 - Thursday, 25 June 1992
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I note that the Chief Minister has outlined other initiatives which will address some of the issues involved, and I welcome these. I am also pleased that further consideration will be given to child-care. We in the ACT are blessed with very good facilities and programs, even if they are not always able to meet the needs of all their would-be clients. More child-care places need to be made available, but it is important that these do not duplicate existing services while leaving some areas without adequate child-care.
I note that the Chief Minister has had the issue surveyed and will watch with keen interest the revelation of the findings. But I submit that this is one of the key areas of the proposed survey of women in the work force who have family responsibilities. The two surveys could have been better conducted in concert, to cover all aspects of child-care and parenting, including after-school care programs and activity programs for young teenagers.
I turn at last to a disturbing trend being described by feminist writers and those involved in women's affairs. It has been tagged as the feminist backlash, and Canberra itself has played host to one of the examples used to substantiate the phenomenon. Sarah Dowse, a former head of the Commonwealth Office of Women's Affairs, in a recent article cited the case of three men who took to the courts the issue of funding for women's health programs. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission had not thought that the issues, as they were first raised, constituted discrimination under the Act; but eventually the Federal Court ordered the commission to hear the case. The argument was that because men died earlier they deserved special health services, and that it was discriminatory to fund women's health units.
The commission eventually ruled that the absence of a special program for men did not make the existence of the women's program discriminatory, but it was the way the case was reported that Dowse used to support her argument that there has been a backlash. Some have quoted what she sees as another backlash by academics and commentators, who use as their catchphrase that these sorts of decisions are the result of politically correct thinking, that they are a threat to free speech and civil liberties. The women's movement has also identified trends in recent popular movies as cause for concern.
It is true that the progressive policies of the past have been developed in relative affluence, and it will be a test of the will of this Government to press ahead with its reform agenda under adverse economic conditions. I congratulate the Chief Minister and, like Mrs Carnell, look forward to seeing more positive and innovative programs come before this Assembly in the interests of women. I close with a plea for a commitment to the final objective of the 1984 Sex Discrimination Act, that is, the promotion of recognition and acceptance in the community of the principle of the equality of women and men. We achieve this through more education and the promotion of a positive image of women and their contributions to both the social and the economic spheres of our society.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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