Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

International Women's Day is a day for women around the world to seek equality for women around the world. I am really proud to be part of a labour movement and a political party that has achieved significant reforms that have improved the lives of women in Australia. We should acknowledge progress in marking International Women's Day; we should make sure we think about the progress we have made. We should also remember that addressing inequality is important for a lot of reasons and that, to end violence against women, our nation must address gender inequality.

International Women's Day has its origins in the labour movement—8 March was the date of the 1908 New York garment workers' strike. It is a day of international solidarity recognising that, for women to be equal anywhere, women must be equal everywhere. Here at home, I am proud to be part of a labour movement that has been at the vanguard of fighting for gender equality. The ACTU's equal pay test cases of 1969 and 1972 were watershed moments for gender equality. In government, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam reopened the national wage and equal pay cases, resulting in half a million female workers becoming eligible for full pay. He did a lot of other things to advance gender equality too. You would remember, Deputy Speaker Broadbent, that, by the time he left office, specialist grassroots health and welfare organisations had been funded, no-fault divorce had been allowed and restrictions on the pill had been lifted, giving women control over their sex lives.

Labor governments since then have advanced gender equality. Most recently it was Labor, under prime ministers Rudd and Gillard, that initiated Australia's first ever National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children. The members for Jagajaga and Sydney should be very proud of their leadership in relation to that national plan.

Even in opposition, our commitment to gender equality has been very clear. The first policy that our leader, Bill Shorten, announced was for immediate measures to assist people facing family violence. That package comprises more than $70 million, including approximately $50 million for frontline legal services, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services. A Shorten Labor government will also make domestic violence leave a universal workplace right. These measures stand in stark contrast to the Turnbull government's funding cuts in the order of tens of millions of dollars to front-line legal centres and the $44 million a year in capital expenditure cuts to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness—noting that domestic violence is the largest cause of homelessness in this country.

We should not just focus on treating violence; we should seek to reduce and ultimately eliminate it. That makes International Women's Day the ideal time to talk about violence against women, because the evidence shows gender inequality lies at the root of that violence. Addressing inequality is a form of primary prevention for gendered violence, therefore. There is much effort going into reducing violence and into programs for women more generally. I acknowledge ANROWS, Our Watch and Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, which is the provider of the national telephone counselling and referral service 1800RESPECT. Those organisations are giving effect to the national plan, alongside countless state and local services.

I also acknowledge the many national alliances and organisations working for gender equality, like economic Security4Women, the Equality Rights Alliance, the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance, the National Rural Women's Coalition and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance. The alliances to which I have referred bring together women's organisations and individuals from across Australia to share information, identify issues that affect them and identify solutions. Their advocacy means that governments are better able to hear women's diverse voices.

As International Women's Day is, of its nature, as I have said, concerned with the condition of women everywhere, I want to acknowledge all organisations with an international role, like UN Women. Of course, many members of this House will be going to events hosted by UN Women around the country to mark International Women's Day on 8 March, or around that date.

I mentioned violence, and I did so advisedly, because of the connection between violence against women and gender inequality. It is not just my view that that is the case. There is a great resource that people will want to read which was distributed last year by the Australian National Research Organisation for Women's Safety—ANROWS, which I have mentioned—VicHealth and Our Watch. It is called Change the story and it is a primary prevention framework for a consistent and integrated national approach to prevent violence against women and their children. That work showed that gender inequality is the major driver of violence against women. Thanks to the important research and work that was done, we now have a road map to change, but that change will only happen if we make confronting gender inequality a national priority. For everyone's sake, I wish all of the organisations that are working towards gender equality very well for the future.

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