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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 3 Hansard (7 March) . . Page.. 807 ..
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mrs Burke, the motion talks about crisis accommodation for women.
Mr Moore: Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: the motion reads:
That this Assembly notes the significance of International Women's Day-
even that part of the motion gives Mrs Burke room to move-
and reaffirms its commitment to providing assistance to women in crisis ...
What Mrs Burke is doing is illustrating very clearly that this Assembly is going to give that commitment, and supporting women in here will, of course, give better opportunity for that.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would ask Mrs Burke to move through this fairly quickly if she could.
Mr Kaine: On that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: I support your objection because this motion is about women escaping domestic violence and existing women's crisis accommodation services. I do not see that what is happening within the Labor Party in terms of representation in this place has anything to do with that subject whatsoever.
Mr Moore: On the point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker-
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Look, I think we will leave it to Mrs Burke to edit what she has in front of her and get on with the subject matter.
MRS BURKE: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Mr Kerrisk then went on to say:
Incumbency is worth a hell of a lot to a candidate, that is just a fact of life.
Doesn't this contradict the Leader of the Opposition; doesn't this prove that the Labor Party does not listen to women?
For a leader of a party to say that at the next election at least half of Labor's team of candidates will be women and that they will again have women representing the ALP in this place and then for the secretary of the same party to say it would be difficult for any of its female candidates to be elected unless it can lift its overall vote, seems to drastically fly in the face of, and contradict and negate, everything the Leader of the Opposition says on the matter. That is the relevancy.
This brings me back to my first statement: what is the Labor Party's true and genuine-given that they like the use of this word-
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mrs Burke, I think you are pushing it rather hard. I think we all acknowledge that-
MRS BURKE: Is it the position in regard to women's issues?
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