Page 363 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 February 1993
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Ms Ellis made the contemptible statement that historically the Opposition has shown little or no interest in this subject - that is, the advancement of women - and the offering of choice and opportunity to women. That might sound very glib coming off some prepared speech but it does not stack up very well. Ms Ellis might not be aware that it was Sir Robert Menzies - or Mr Menzies at the time - who admitted women to the armed forces in this country for the first time. It was also a Liberal government that removed the Commonwealth Public Service marriage bar in 1966 and gave women the chance to participate fully in the Public Service. It was a Liberal government in 1972 that enacted the country's first equal pay legislation giving women the right to equal pay for equal work. It was the Liberal Government of 1976 under Malcolm Fraser that first paid family allowances directly to the mother rather than to the father. Those were initiatives of a Liberal government.
Let us look at the Liberal Government in the ACT and at an area that I am personally familiar with - health. It was the Liberal Government, the coalition Government headed by Mr Kaine not more than two years ago, that decided that the ACT would establish its first birthing centre and in fact it was almost completed at the time of its losing office. We decided that we would proceed with an extra 75 obstetrics beds at Woden Valley Hospital. We decided that there should be child-care centres at Calvary Hospital and Woden Valley Hospital. We made those decisions. So where is this rhetoric coming from that we are not interested in women? I think that is a little bit rich.
Madam Speaker, the argument that really got me, that really indicated to me the depth to which the Opposition - I am ahead of myself here; I am referring to 13 March - those opposite are going to go in their scare campaign was the argument that said that Dr Hewson is anti-women because he looked at a mop and he said, "This is my friend, Molly; look at her". As if that is going to prove a single thing to any woman anywhere in the country, with the sole exception of Ms Annette Ellis; I ask you!
I wonder too: Has Ms Ellis read the maiden speech made by Mr Paul Keating, the member for Blaxland, when he entered the Federal Parliament back in 1969? She has not; she shakes her head. Has she read that speech? Obviously not.
Mr Cornwell: What did he say?
MR HUMPHRIES: "What did he say?", I am asked by Mr Cornwell. He said that women are better off at home in the kitchen looking after their husbands and their children; that is what he said. He has seen the polls, no doubt; he knows where women's votes stand these days and he has changed his mind. What a coincidence! The fact of life is that this Government pays regard - lip-service, if you like - to the position of women when it suits them and it lets them down, and lets them down badly, when it comes to the crunch of actually putting into practice the things that will make a difference to the livelihood of women.
The Federal coalition, of course, has answers to those problems; it has articulated them very clearly. My colleague Mrs Carnell indicated what sort of advances women in this country can look forward to after 13 March: There will be substantial increases in family allowance and superannuation benefits paid for the first time in respect of women at home outside the paid work force. This will be for the first time outside the paid work force. There will be substantial benefits
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