Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion and in so doing congratulate the member for Brisbane for bringing this issue onto the formal agenda of our parliament. Freedom to learn is a fundamental right that must be afforded to all. In Australia, we often take for granted the ease with which our children access education. Education is seen as a fact of life, available to all—no fuss, no questions.

Across the world, however, this is not always the case. Access to school and to an education for many women, even in an economically booming country such as Nigeria, has seen women face many challenges in order to obtain equal education to men. A positive correlation exists between the enrolment of girls in primary school and the gross national product and increase of life expectancy. It is due to this correlation that enrolment in schools represents the largest component of the investment in human capital in any society. Rapid social and economic development of the nation has been observed to depend on the calibre of women and their education in that country.

Education bestows on women a disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes, competencies and skills. The heinous abduction of these 200 schoolgirls by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, whose name means 'Western education is a sin', has again highlighted the danger that many young girls face when attempting to go to school and has also highlighted that sections of some countries still wish to stand in the way of the right to equal education for women and continue to suppress them in society.

In Nigeria, there are large disparities between the education of boys and the education of girls. Many girls do not have access to adequate education past a certain age. Currently, the adult female literacy rate, which is age 15 and above, for the country is 59.4 per cent, in comparison to the adult male literacy rate of 74.4 per cent. Differences in education have led to this gap in literacy. There are various cultural and socioeconomic issues that prevent women from having adequate access to education. One prominent cultural view is it is better for the women to stay home and learn to tend to their family instead of attending school. Nigerian tradition attaches higher value to a man than a woman, whose place is believed to be in the kitchen.

A study by the University of Ibadan linked the imbalance in boys' and girls' participation to the long-held belief in male superiority and female subordination. This situation has been further aggravated by patriarchal practices which give girls no traditional rights to succession. Therefore, the same patriarchal practices encourage preference to be given to the education of a boy rather than a girl. The decline in economic activity since the 1980s has made education a luxury to many Nigerians, especially to those in rural areas. Because Nigerian parents are known to invest in children depending on their sex, birth order or natural endowment, girls and boys are not treated equally. Often the family can only afford to send one child to school and, because daughters have assumed responsibilities in the home, they are less likely to be the one to attend school.

With so many factors already challenging these Nigerian schoolgirls and holding them back from obtaining an education, this latest abduction is a tragic atrocity. As Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has stated, the Australian community along with the global community is rightly outraged. We completely condemn the group responsible for these attacks. The Australian government is moving urgently to list Boko Haram under the criminal code as a terrorist organisation, and terrorist offences carry penalties of up to 25 years of imprisonment in Australia.

The Foreign Minister has offered Australia's support to the Nigerian government through our Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. There is strong international pressure for Nigeria to accept the offers of assistance particularly from the United States, the United Kingdom and others. Nigeria has welcomed our support for its counter-terrorism efforts. The situation is quite perilous as it is understood that the girls have been separated into groups. There is a great deal of concern about the separation of the girls because if you try to free one group it could have an adverse impact on the other group. The Foreign Minister has advised that the security concerns are being considered very carefully.

I recently joined the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign with fellow Parliamentary Friends of Amnesty co-convener, the member for Scullin, in support of Michelle Obama's condemnation of this atrocity, and as a call to action for other countries to stand up for these schoolgirls and see their safe release.

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