Page 3836 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
For the reasons I have cited, it is probably fortunate that the machinery provisions of the Bill are only default provisions. That allows the enabling law dealing with the matter to be put to referendum to have precedence; thus providing a means of masking the flaws in this Bill that we are discussing tonight. In particular, this Bill, as it stands, is a very good reason why the Community Referendum Bill should be stand-alone legislation. Madam Speaker, we will be supporting this Bill. It is essential for the Territory, but it is unfortunate that it was put together in such haste and is so limited in its approach.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
STATUS OF WOMEN - COMMONWEALTH-STATE MINISTERS CONFERENCE
AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Ministerial Statement and Paper
Debate resumed from 13 October 1994, on motion by Ms Follett:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (8.47): Madam Speaker, it is with pleasure that I respond tonight to the Chief Minister's statement on the Commonwealth-State Ministers Conference on the Status of Women, which took place in Adelaide on Friday, 7 October, Chief Minister; not the 6th, as you have in your statement. She mentioned much about equity, access, equal representation and participation, and she told the Assembly that her Government is leading the way in the field of greater representation for women. She referred to the programs in place to ensure that access by women to positions in government and general access to services are readily available - something, obviously, that every member of this Assembly would totally support.
There are a number of issues, though, that the Chief Minister has not addressed in her statement. One of those, of course, is an issue that I know the Chief Minister has spoken about before, and that is the issue of getting more women into parliament. We note a recent decision by the Labor Party to go down the track of a 35 per cent quota for women to be preselected in winnable seats by the year 2002. It will be very interesting to see whether the Labor Party does preselect a woman in the new central seat in the ACT and whether they are willing to back up those statements in reality. Despite this, the Chief Minister was unable to outline for us the specifics of how her Government will actually improve what this Assembly and her Government are doing for women.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .