Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for bringing this motion forward. Equality will never be achieved in the Pacific unless every effort is made to create genuine opportunities to empower women and girls. This is of paramount importance in the Pacific region if women are going to have fair access to leadership opportunities. Women's empowerment is a cross-cutting component of the Pacific Regional Program. As global leaders came together for the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, UN women brought women's voices and priorities to the forefront and called for tangible actions to achieve gender equality. This year's theme was focusing on people, striving for peace, and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet. Through a range of high-level events on women's economic empowerment, equal pay for work of equal value, ending violence against women and girls, engaging men and boys as gender equity champions, gender and climate change, and stepping up financing for gender equity, UN women continued to highlight women's empowerment as a key driver of sustainable development.

Pacific women are hardworking, creative and resilient. They make significant contributions to their societies and economies, and there is a growing recognition amongst governments and the private sector that investing in women and girls has a powerful effect on economic growth and wellbeing. However, women and girls face significant challenges. Up to 60 per cent of women and girls have experienced violence at the hands of their partners or family members. The Inter-Parliamentary Union reports that globally women comprise 23.3 per cent of national parliamentarians. That is the world average as at January 2017, but the percentage of women in the Pacific parliaments is currently around 6.9 per cent. Across the Pacific men outnumber women in paid employment outside the agricultural sector by approximately two to one, and males typically earn 20 to 50 per cent more than women because they work in jobs attracting higher salaries.

Progressing Gender Equality in the Pacific is a five-year project working with the 14 Pacific island countries to strengthen government's capacity to mainstream gender and improve gender statistics to better monitor progress towards gender equality. The PGEP project commenced in 2013 and will finish in 2018. In July 2016 a formative mid-term evaluation of the PGEP was commissioned by DFAT. It showed the following successful outcomes: women in the Pacific accessed 22,217 crisis support services; 3,495 accessed financial information and services; 2,548 had formal opportunities to share their ideas and learn from each other; 9,385 were supported to take on leadership roles at the community, provincial and national level; and 692 men actively engaged in promoting gender equality in this reporting period.

Participating UN women agreed that empowering women is central to addressing the 21st century's global challenges such as poverty, inequality and violence. Yet, deep financing gaps for women and girls pose significant barriers and deter progress. Addressing gender equality is everyone's business. Melinda Gates said, 'We have learned from our partners that if we don't look at the gender piece of work, we will never achieve our goals and lift people up.' We have a lot of anecdotal evidence about women in terms of their lives and livelihoods, and now we are finally doing the research and gathering data to inform policies and programs. If we are serious about achieving the sustainable development goals, we have to invest in gender data. It is at the heart of what we do.

The importance of women and girl child equality and their livelihood is ever more important in this world. Gender matters, and we have a role to play. Gender equality must start from the cradle. There are still far too many male-dominated industries where women are locked out. Here in Australia, we have much to do with our own first-nation women and girls. It is great to see Senator McCarthy and the Honourable Linda Burney, who are amazing role models for our first-nation women. Labor has been a leading light in gender equality in politics, and we are now very close—44 per cent—to achieving our 50 per cent by 2025.

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