Page 352 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 February 1993
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Mr Connolly: You were just saying that the participation rate was too high.
MR KAINE: I am talking about the lack of performance of your Government, Minister. Just listen. If you would use your ears more than your mouth you might learn a great deal. While this was all happening, we are told at page 23 that the unemployment rate claimed for ACT females is generally higher than it is for ACT males. The unemployment rate for females averaged 6.2 per cent over the last 10 years compared to 4.3 per cent for males. Women are not doing too well, are they?
Females earn less than males. Page 25 states:
... ACT females in full time employment earn on average only 68 per cent of that earned by ACT males in full time employment.
After 10 years of Labor government, after 10 years of affirmative action in the ACT for which this Government is responsible, the average pay of a woman is only 68 per cent of that applicable to males, and we have this Government that keeps talking about social justice.
"Our budget", we are told, "is based on the principles of social justice". Where is the social justice in that and what is being done in this year's budget to redress the balance? The answer is absolutely nothing. I quote as an instance that one of the things that the Chief Minister is claiming to be doing to redress this imbalance is that they will provide 20 women with six months' work experience and training. That is, 20 women and six months' work experience and training are going to redress the imbalance between the unemployment levels of women and men and to jack women's wages up to where they should be. This is coming from a government that is committed to social justice. Hogwash!
We can go further through this document. There is page after page of it; in fact, how many pages are there? Even before you get to the annexures there are 147 pages. Let us see just how committed this Chief Minister is to the interests of women in the Territory. Let us look at boards and committees in the Chief Minister's own organisation. Under the Minister for Industrial Relations, on the various boards there are 18 men and one woman. That is some equality! In the non-statutory authorities, and this is under the Minister for Industrial Relations again, there are 17 men and three women. At least Mr Connolly can hold his head high; he does a great deal better. In the Attorney-General's Department there are 75 men and 56 women on the various boards that he runs, but what about the Chief Minister's organisation? Where is the equality for women in there? The answer is that there is none. We have a Chief Minister that talks a lot but does not act.
Mr Wood: You need to look at the composition of many of those; they are constrained by the composition.
MR KAINE: Have a look, Minister, at the number of men and the number of women on the boards in the Chief Minister's own department. Have a look at the ACT Government Service as a whole. How many women occupy senior management positions across the breadth of the ACT Government Service?
Ms Follett: Two more than when you were there, and you complained about it.
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