Page 90 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 December 2016
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every opportunity I get in this place to deliver that for the people of Murrumbidgee and Canberra.
As an apprentice, as a hairdresser and then as a small business owner, I saw a lot of how our modern economy works. From across the lake, we often hear the nasty nonsense that workers’ rights must be crushed to defend small business. On behalf of every small business that has ever tried to operate in a shopping mall, let me say that that is bull. The mall takes all the profit, and the small business gets all the risk. Like a worker given the options of taking a job that will destroy her health or feeding the kids, small business people are often caught between being a bad boss and going broke. Government must be a force for good, preventing the exploitation of the contractor and the small business owner as well as the employee. There is still work to be done here.
As a city, we also need to develop new sources of jobs. The federal government is turning out to be a bad boss for many. Enterprise agreements are being stripped of conditions, job security is being undermined and workers are finding themselves bullied and abused. Developing new industries with dependable jobs will buffer against the federal Liberal government sending our local economy into recession. As Canberra’s leaders, we must stand up against those who would wreck our city and our community.
It is a great privilege to stand here today as one of the women whose election has made this Australia’s first female-dominated parliament. I have never been sure if I am a good feminist. I may even be a bad feminist. I am torn between equality and liberation. There needs to be space in the conversation for a diversity of choice and valuing the critical social and economic roles women play. Some women choose to be executives. Some choose trade qualifications. Others choose to stay home and raise children, or choose lives of academia, adventure or art. But too many are robbed of that choice. Our grandmothers and our grandmothers’ mothers fought hard to ensure that the women of today had choice. My choice was to leave school early and do an apprenticeship, and now to be a leader.
We should pause and use our privilege to reflect. We here have high incomes, we have staff and allowances, and we have the opportunities to be leaders. Being leaders gives us the chance to give guidance. Today in the ACT, there are young women not suited to school wanting to take on an apprenticeship. These women should be given the same opportunities as women who choose universities and bureaucratic careers. The women and men who go to university are not better people than those who choose an apprenticeship, but we are a worse community if we do not provide the opportunity for everyone to shine.
As we move into the next generation of feminism, we should celebrate the successes of the past, but also acknowledge our failures. The women of the one per cent have been liberated; now we need to liberate the rest.
Last month we heard Emma Husar give a moving speech about how her life was affected by domestic and family violence. For many women, this story is far too familiar. As at 8 December this year, there have been 70—that is 70—known deaths
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