Page 5865 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 2010
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Measures such as these will provide the government with opportunities to identify where the issues are and improve equity for all employees of the ACT public service. Gender equity was an issue discussed with women’s ministers at the ministerial conference on the status of women, which I attended in September of this year.
It is worth emphasising the significantly narrower gap in the ACT public service when compared to the national pay gap of 17.2 per cent. I think it is testament to the efforts of the ACT government agencies to retain women in the workforce, promote them into senior roles and foster family-friendly work environments. To this end, a progressive maternity leave scheme which this government took to the 2008 election has now been in place for over a year, and it remains the most generous for the public service in the country.
At 18 weeks paid leave, the scheme provides financial support to ACT families and sends a positive message to women in the public service that they can take time off with their new children. In saying this, I add that the ACT government has also doubled bonding leave to two weeks in recognition that it is also important for fathers to spend quality time with their newborns without being financially disadvantaged.
On the prevention of violence against women, the most recent budget targeted a group of vulnerable women who receive support through a range of community services. In 2010-11, the budget provided $2.8 million in new funding over four years to increase support for women who are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. The funding will ensure that victims of family violence or sexual assault receive timely and appropriate specialist support and advocacy and that early intervention occurs in families where violence is escalating. This additional funding adds to the robust response to violence against women. The new services form part of the continuum of support from police intervention through to counselling, accommodation and court advocacy. The budget provides recurrent funding for an innovative early intervention program for young people using violence against family members.
The women’s safety audits provide an opportunity for women to assess and comment on the actual or perceived safety of an event, space, building or neighbourhood. Following a recommendation from the ministerial advisory council for women, women’s safety audits will be piloted at several ACT government events over the next 12 months. These audits will be a useful tool to support organisers to consider issues that might prevent women accessing the great number of events that this government puts on every year. The intention at this early stage is to develop a useful tool for event organisers to incorporate into their event evaluation processes, and there is strong potential to use the women’s safety audit across a range of settings.
The ACT Office for Women has been providing secretariat support to the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Women’s Gathering since its inception in 2007. The gathering provides an opportunity for members to identify issues of interest to them. I attended the recent gathering in November of this year, and the discussion concentrated on developing a vision and future directions for the group. The members were keen to develop links with appropriate bodies, both locally and nationally, and two members of the gathering were recently appointed to the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Women.
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