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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 712 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

fluctuates between 90.8 per cent and anything up to 92 per cent. We might have gone down to about 91.5 per cent from last year, which I think was an absolute high. In the last few years I have stayed within a range of about a one percentage point and at over 90 per cent. That is a huge achievement. At least Mr Stanhope had the graciousness to say that we are about 25 per cent above national average retention rates for girls.

I give credit to some woman who used to be in the Opposition. Rosemary Follett was incorrectly omitted from an article in a paper in 1989, when Carmen Lawrence was said to be the first female Premier. In fact, Rosemary beat her to it by about six to eight weeks. That report was just indicative of the attitude of the national press towards Canberra and this Assembly. We are completely insignificant. Rosemary Follett was the first female Premier or Chief Minister anywhere in Australia.

Then we come to our present Chief Minister, who on Thursday will celebrate some five years as Chief Minister. Contrary to what Mr Berry might say, what a wonderful job she has done. When we look at the last two elections, we see that a significant amount of support for Kate Carnell comes through the women's vote. Women, possibly even more than men, like to see economic stability, a growing economy, and jobs for their children, their husbands and themselves. You only get that if you run an efficient, competent economy and an efficient, competent territory, which is certainly something this Government, under this quite remarkable female Chief Minister, has been doing for some five years. That needs to be put on the record.

We have good economic growth and we have done things that assist our economy and translate into things that many women are very concerned about. They want their children to have a future. They want their children to have a good education and a good chance of getting good jobs that are going to be meaningful and will give them satisfaction. They also want access to good jobs for themselves and their husbands or partners. That is why our current Chief Minister is so popular with many women in the Territory. Those opposite have talked a lot of nonsense. Mr Berry said that the Chief Minister had the worst record for representation of women in the ACT. That is absolute nonsense. The facts totally belie that suggestion.

Mr Stanhope mentioned media coverage of women in sport. That is still not nearly as good as it should be. I am a little surprised the figure is as low as he indicated. I thought it was about 7 or 8 per cent for the electronic media. He said that it is about 10 per cent in the Canberra Times. I will take that as being reasonably accurate. However, that is still very worrying. A lot of women involved in sport in Australia are trying to redress that, and that is certainly something we on this side would be very keen to see.

I recall attending a conference in Canberra about 18 months ago when this matter was raised. I would encourage the press to give far more coverage to the excellent results achieved by women in sporting events and the excellent teams we see running around not only in Canberra but Australia-wide. It gives me great pleasure as sports Minister that over the last five years the number of women in this Territory participating in sport has increased dramatically. I am delighted that the participation rate is now over 55 per cent, which is much higher than the national average.

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