Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan, who chairs the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development, for bringing this motion to the House and for providing me with an opportunity to speak on the matters contained therein. The UN State of World Population 2005: The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals again reminds the world that there is a long way to go before we can put to rest gender apartheid. The report highlights that, worldwide, almost double the number of women remain illiterate compared to men; that there is a direct correlation between the education of girls and women and the mortality rate of children under five years of age; and that there is abundant evidence that nations who do not value and include women in decision making and economic activity suffer socially and economically. There is no doubt that gender equality can directly improve the economic prospects of women and their families and can contribute to the overall economic prosperity of their country. Women must be given a chance.

I was pleased to see a snippet of the program on SBS last night that highlighted the very positive work that has been taking place in Pakistan and the improvement in women’s reproductive health, child mortality rates and economic wellbeing. Moves to empower women through access to information about reproductive health and microcredit facilities to assist them to contribute to their communities and their families show extremely positive results. The training of local women to attend to the health and economic needs of their communities in Pakistan is paying handsome dividends. Stepping up these programs will be the key to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve extreme poverty by 2015. It is a bold and ambitious goal, yet there are excellent examples that demonstrate the benefit of the commitment of many individuals and, indeed, organisations. It is a great demonstration that miracles can happen if enough people are committed to the cause.

I recently heard on the radio about another group that was started by retired businesspeople committed to meeting the millennium goals by providing microcredit facilities to women in underdeveloped countries. There seem to be a number of these. I remember the first contact I had—I think it was in relation to Bangladesh—when I attended the UN conference for women in Beijing in 1995. This, along with greater access to information regarding reproductive health, shows great potential. At the core of improving the quality of life for women and their families is the willingness of governments to include women in the decision-making processes. The difficulties faced by women in developing countries in having a real voice in government policy making are still acute. These difficulties were heard by our IPU delegation to Geneva last October, where discussion was had on the progress in meeting the CEDAW goals developed during the United Nations conference for women in Beijing in 1995. Hearing women speak at this conference, it is clear that they still struggle for a voice in public life.

I note that only 14 countries around the world have reached the United Nations benchmark of 30 per cent of parliamentarians being women. The sad fact is that on the African continent, although there are many more women elected to parliament, the difficulties in them having their voices heard and being more than a token presence are immense—this was highlighted, as I said, by this conference and by the voices of women from that continent. To squander the wealth of experience and wisdom of women in politics and administration denies nations the use of the best talent and the broadest representation at the highest level. We all need to recommit to eliminating gender discrimination in all its forms and to make violence towards women a thing of the past. I applaud the work of AusAID to improve gender equality through health and education programs and the government for funding the work. I understand that Australia will have invested more than $750 million in the Asia-Pacific region alone over 2005-06. I wholeheartedly support this motion and acknowledge the work of the former parliamentary secretary, the member for Dunkley—who is at the table—for his direct involvement in this work. (Time expired)

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