Page 3981 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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And the idea that she would think that a competition would be enough to deal with this issue shows that she has either no care or no understanding of this very important issue. I do agree with her that there is a role for the Children and Young People Commissioner in this.
Mr Barr: Not the Youth Advisory Council?
MRS DUNNE: And there would be a role for the Youth Advisory Council in this. But I think that the whole notion of a competition and a one-off event demeans and degrades this issue. The amendment that I foreshadow, which has been circulated, I think, addresses more of the issues in a more detailed way.
This is a very important issue but it is not a blank sheet. There is substantial research on the subject and substantial writing on the subject. I commend to members of this place a collection of essays edited by my friend, a very courageous woman who has worked very hard in this area, Melinda Tankard Reist, Getting real: challenging the sexualisation of girls. It has a very thoughtful preface by renowned Australian actress Noni Hazlehurst. She does get to the issue of how far have we come in the women’s movement when our children and our girls are treated like this. We have not come very far and I think that the substantial amount of research that is out there is diminished and downplayed by Ms Burch’s amendment and downplayed to a great extent by the original motion.
I commend to members the amendment that I have circulated because I think that it more fully outlines the issues that are there. In the call to action, what I am proposing is that the Commissioner for Children and Young People convene a task force. The potential members of that task force are quite large and deep. Ms Hunter cited a range of people who would be eligible to be on that task force. Melinda Tankard Reist, a local Canberran, who probably has more knowledge and done more research on this than any other person in this country, could be part of a task force that would do a whole range of things.
The formulation of a retail code of practice, I think, is important. We need to look at whether there are issues of classification that need to be addressed. These have been looked at by my colleague in South Australia, the South Australian shadow minister for young people, Michelle Lensink. In May this year, she introduced legislation in the South Australian parliament that targeted tweens and teenage magazines with PG and M ratings in response to the issues of the sexualisation of young girls. While I am not sure that this is necessarily the way to go, I think that this would be a good thing for the commissioner and such a task force to look at.
I do think that it is important that we come up with appropriate curriculum material for use in ACT schools. Some of it is already there in the teaching material that goes with Faking it and I do commend that to members.
I think that it is important that this matter is dealt with in a much more thoughtful way than it has been tonight. I commend Ms Hunter for the thought but I do not commend her for the execution.
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