Page 793 - Week 02 - Thursday, 10 March 2011
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In 1975, ACT senator Susan Ryan attended the first United Nations World Conference on Women in Mexico City. In that same year, the Whitlam government introduced no-fault divorce through the Family Law Act 1975, allowing both women and men to leave marriages without having to show fault of their spouse. This was an important milestone for women, because before this time women would be trapped in marriages as they did not always have the resources to prove the man’s fault.
In 1983, under the Hawke government, Australia became a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, known as CEDAW. In 1983, Senator Susan Ryan was the first female Labor federal minister. As the minister assisting the Prime Minister for women’s issues, Senator Ryan introduced the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984.
In 1989, of course, we had Rosemary Follett becoming Chief Minister of the ACT Legislative Assembly, closely followed, in 1990, by Carmen Lawrence, who became Premier of Western Australia and the first female premier. In 2002, we had the first female Aboriginal minister in any government in Australia, in the Northern Territory. And in 2010, Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female Prime Minister.
This year the first national paid parental leave scheme came into effect. The scheme is paid at the national minimum wage for up to 18 weeks.
I have pulled out the major changes over that time, but you can see just what has been won for women and the achievements that have been made here in Australia in our political history. We know through representation of our communities that parliaments respond to those communities’ needs. Women have been at the forefront of change over the last 100 years—change not just in the area of women but in the areas of human services and community investment. Here in the ACT, we have had a pretty proud record of female representation in this parliament. I take my hat off to all the feminists that have worked long and hard in delivering this change so that women like me can enjoy it.
I did note on International Women’s Day that, once I had worked a full day, packed some lunch boxes, packed the school bags and made a range of different dinners catering for the dietary needs of my children, I fell into bed exhausted, wondering whether everything we had achieved has been worth it. But then I woke up the next morning and felt a lot better. I think that on balance we have made significant achievements, and I salute all of those who have campaigned for change.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (4.59): I thank Ms Hunter for raising this matter of public importance. I have felt moved to join my fellow female MLAs and say something about this important matter.
Ms Gallagher was just talking about whether or not it was all worth the change. I just reflected on that moment, comparing my life with my mother’s. I will not go into the more recent part of my mother’s life; her problems are not to do with being female. She was a librarian; she would still regard herself as a librarian. She worked for what has now become the ACT government. She was a school librarian, which was a great
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