Page 279 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 December 2004
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violence, and undertake an analysis of early intervention and education programs for the prevention of violence against women.
Economic security remains an essential area for government action in relation to women. The government in this term will pursue a range of initiatives which will build opportunities for women and provide economic independence and autonomy. We will develop measures to support women’s financial decision making throughout their lives and assist women to address issues that impact on their financial security, both short and long term.
Through the annual women’s action plan we will continue to outline the government’s programs in place to support flexible education and training. The areas of focus will include supporting young mothers to continue with or re-engage in schooling, providing skills for older workers, and developing strategies to support women in vocational education and training.
As the Minister for Women I am committed to ensuring that we continue to raise the status and increase the participation of women. We will continue to do this through the structures we have created, the Ministerial Advisory Council on Women, the Indigenous Women’s Circle, and through the ACT community as a whole.
Work and family issues are now a part of the mainstream political agenda and an essential part of any progressive political agenda. This government has led the way in pursuing work and family policies in both public and private sector work forces and also through integrated community services which can improve the ability of mothers, fathers and families to manage competing priorities and workloads.
In the public sector, the ACT has led the nation in providing maternity and carer leave and improved part-time and purchased leave options. These reforms to the ACT public service have two benefits which demonstrate the value for employers in addressing the work and family collision. In the ACT public service, improved work and family conditions add to the ability to recruit and retain valued staff, with access to improved conditions rating highly in staff priorities. They also make for happier and more productive staff who feel they have a genuine stake in a cooperative work force. These are benefits which other employers must become aware of, as employees continue to promote work and family issues in the workplace and through the political process.
The government has already begun to take our work and family agenda into the private sector, and this work will continue in this term. In the last Assembly, the government implemented the Payroll Tax Amendment Bill, which allowed employers to access payroll tax reductions if they implemented paid maternity or carer leave provisions in their workplaces.
This new term will allow the government to begin the work of implementing its election commitments in this area. We will be introducing two new grants programs. One grants program will be targeted at women who are returning to the work force and the other will be a pilot program of grants for private sector businesses and community groups to convert to more family-friendly work practices. We will also commence a pilot study into work-based childcare options, to further add to the options available for working
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