Page 355 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 February 1993
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I will just list some of them. We have the women's workforce development scheme which, as Mr Kaine said, provides 20 women with six months' work experience and on and off the job training. This particular scheme targets women who are over 30 years of age and who have been out of work for over two years. Mr Kaine can say that that is not a good initiative. I say that, for the women who are able to participate in it, it is an excellent initiative which targets their specific needs. We also have small business seminars which have been held in the Tuggeranong Valley to let women know how to set up a small business. Particular emphasis has been given to the information needs of women from a non-English-speaking background.
We have also the women's breakfast seminar series, which is a continuation of a very successful initiative. It has in fact attracted some private sector sponsorship as well. These seminars enable a network to be developed by women in business or planning to go into business, to provide practical support for them and, of course, to exchange information. We have also a skills recognition service which has assisted women's re-entry to the work force through the recognition of prior learning. We should not forget that many skills gained by women are in fact gained by managing a home and a family. I think Mr Kaine would be interested in that, had he stayed to hear my remarks.
We have also assisted women through employment and training grants programs. Grants allocated for assistance to women in 1992-93 totalled $155,464. They included: $25,000 to Caloola Farm for the provision of four prevocational training courses in keyboarding, which will target 48 women; $7,308 to Caloola Farm again for prevocational training involving Tuggeranong community houses; and $39,826 to Involve for work experience for 150 women aged 26 to 40 years who are wishing to re-enter the work force. I will turn briefly to the tradeswomen on the move program. The full-time coordinator of tradeswomen on the move assists women and school students to consider wider career choices. Again, I think that it is very important that women have access to the full range of employment opportunities and I think that the tradeswomen initiative is a very important one.
One of the most significant aspects of women in the paid work force is, of course, their need for affordable and reliable child-care, and in this aspect I believe that my Government has well and truly taken the lead. We now have two centres operating for ACT Government Service employees. A total of 110 places are provided at the two centres located at Acton and Campbell. There will be another 125 places provided over the next two years.
Madam Speaker, many women engage in unpaid work and I think that in addressing the issue today it is also appropriate to address that kind of work. In all of our discussions on employment, we have sought to recognise those unpaid workers, the carers in our community. The Discrimination Act 1991, a Labor government initiative, makes discrimination unlawful on a number of grounds including status as a parent or as a carer. At a more practical level, the extension of women's neighbourhood groups, another budget initiative, will help to bring together those women who do choose to stay at home.
Violence against women is an issue that has been of great significance in past years and it is one to which my Government gives a very high priority in the protection of women and children. We are using the national strategy on violence against women to measure our own initiatives in the ACT.
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