John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

At a time when there is a movie called Battle of the Sexes, featuring the Bobby Riggs clash with Billie Jean King, it might be appropriate to talk about the leadership of our great women players to fight for and gain equal prize money in this international sport. It might be surprising to many that often the best-known female in the world has been a women's tennis player.

At the turn of the previous century, it was claimed that Suzanne Lenglen was the most famous woman in the world. Then it was Billie Jean King, at the height of her powers. Steffi Graf was voted more famous than Princess Diana. Then the Williams sisters, who have set records that no sisters will ever equal. Through this, the game of women's tennis has prospered enormously and this has drawn attention to what women can do when they have a fair chance and equal pay.

It is of a concern to anybody that has sisters and who has daughters—I still have sisters and I have daughters; I'm surrounded by women—to have seen their fight in the workplace and to see their trials and tribulations and to see the change in attitudes. My mother was a schoolteacher, and my parents' marriage was somewhat delayed because, if she were to marry, she would have to retire from the career that she loved. She did marry and had to retire. My sister was a schoolteacher and she loved that profession also. And by that time that profession did provide equal pay. And it has continued. We here in parliament are very aware of inequality, and each party, I think, makes a genuine effort to increase women's participation in representation. My colleague, the previous speaker, made the point that, to give equal representation to 50 per cent of the population, you've got to have equal numbers in parliament. I think that is a great aim, and we are moving towards that.

Furthermore, in the workplace we are aware that, while management is sometimes male top-heavy, there are any number of great examples of women increasing their sway at the top. I am going to a function shortly for the Lung Foundation of Australia, an organisation where both the CEO and the chair—Christine Jenkins—are women. Christine Jenkins spoke beautifully on Saturday night at their fundraising event. She is here this evening, and she will be presenting again at this function. They present great examples of women's success that we can celebrate, and we can look forward to having many more celebrations of this type.

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