Page 3980 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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especially girls, contribute to anxiety and a whole range of adverse medical and psychological outcomes.
I think that it is unfortunate that Ms Hunter’s motion tends to dwell on the medical side because there is much more to it than that. In her own presentation she did actually dwell on depression, anxiety, poor body image, eating disorders and low self-esteem. Not all of those are medical indications of poor outcomes and I think that it is unfortunate that Ms Hunter’s motion, as it is currently drafted, tends to concentrate on the medical side of it.
I think that the Greens are probably a little more uncomfortable about delving into this space than I would be because they are essentially trying to walk both sides of the road. They want to say, “We do not want to talk about censorship. This is not about censorship.” But this is somewhere where we have to act. If we have to act in this place, effectively we will have to say to people, “This is not acceptable for our children; we will not accept it and we will not tolerate you doing it anymore,” and that is effectively censorship. Ms Hunter needs to work out what it is exactly that she wants out of this motion.
I am a little surprised that the Greens have brought this forward but I am encouraged, because a previous member who sat in this place on the Greens’ side said, on a number of occasions to me personally and then repeated it in a public forum, that she thought is was okay for girls to go into prostitution. I was always a little concerned about the attitude that the Greens had to women and girls if they thought that prostitution was an authentic career choice for my daughter or their daughters. I am grateful today to see, with this motion, a little more sense in the Greens.
I congratulate Ms Hunter for bringing this matter forward but I do not congratulate the Greens for the cursory way in which they have attempted to deal with this tonight. What they wanted was a little publicity that showed that they were a bit more mainstream than a lot people in the ACT might think that they would be, but at the same time they are not prepared to have a proper debate. They are not prepared to have a lengthy debate. They just want to sweep it through.
I would like to particularly comment on Ms Burch’s amendment which she has circulated. What do you say about Ms Burch and her amendment? The fact is that she made a two-minute or three-minute speech on this and then moved this amendment without much comment on it. It would be hard to comment on it because it really does degrade the whole thing.
What are we going to do? This is an important issue. This is an important issue for our daughters. This is an important issue for our sisters. This is about the mental health and wellbeing and physical health and wellbeing of the young girls in this community. And the best Ms Burch can come up with is a competition.
Mr Barr: Campaign or event.
MRS DUNNE: We are going to have a competition or a campaign or an event, a one-off something, to address a systemic and endemic problem in this community.
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