Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of a motion acknowledging the International Day of the Girl Child. I'm very proud to do so to support my friend and colleague the member for Jagajaga and the seconder, the member for Lalor, because I'm part of a party that is absolutely committed to gender equality. I am extremely proud to be standing here today as the first woman to represent an electorate named after Louisa Dunkley, a pioneering unionist and feminist who, at the turn of the last century, not only led a successful campaign for an equal pay for women provision in the Commonwealth Public Service Act but was known to be one of the leading forces internationally for feminism and for equality within the union movement and the suffragette movement.

It is somewhat surprising, then, that it's taken so long for a woman to represent the electorate named after Louisa Dunkley, but I can tell this House that people in my community are very proud to live in an electorate named after a woman who fought for equality for everyone, because, as she said, equal pay is not just about the equality for the women who work day by day, side by side with the men. It's also about properly valuing the work that both men and women do, and that is something that we continue to strive for.

In the short time since I have been the member for Dunkley, I have come across so many amazing young women and girls who are already leaders in their community—young women and girls who sometimes have been facing what others might see as insurmountable barriers to success, but it is actually those barriers that are encouraging them and inspiring them to make their voices heard.

In my community we are honouring International Day of the Girl Child not just today but every day by trying to support those girls who want to be leaders of the future. Plan International's research has shown that 91 per cent of girls and young women express a strong desire to be leaders to tackle the biggest challenges of our time. We all know, or most of us know, that one of the biggest challenges of our time is climate change. One only has to talk to school children to understand that they know that that's the biggest challenge of their time and the future. So it's probably no surprise that the Plan International research also talks about young people wanting to have their voices heard on climate change. We have a parliamentary friends of tackling climate change group, which today heard from experts about the impact of climate change on health. All of those experts, who coincidentally were all women, which was a terrific thing to see, spoke about young people and young girls' desire to have their voices heard to have the future protected. That's what International Day of the Girl Child wants to do.

The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative talks about the inspiration for 'unscripted and unstoppable', the theme of the day, being to:

… equip girls with the power, knowledge and space to voice their passions and concerns. The global community must create more opportunity for girls' voices to be heard and safe spaces for their participation in decision-making. Leading change for girls is our collective responsibility.

No-one in this place could put it any better. It is our collective responsibility. We must all work together.

In my electorate, Tegan Kynes, who I met at Elisabeth Murdoch College and then again at a fundraiser for cancer, is a survivor of childhood leukaemia. She is 16 years old. Her ambition is to be the captain of the Australian cricket team. Chloe Kopeck is a young woman from my electorate, also 16 years old, who contacted me to say: 'Can I please come and do work experience in your office and come to Canberra, because I want to be the Prime Minister of Australia. I want my voice to be heard.' These are young girls who are so inspiring, and they deserve to have their names and their voices heard in this parliament.

Over the weekend I took the children of friends of mine on tours of Parliament House, and the girls were all inspired, standing in front of Julia Gillard's portrait. I found myself saying, 'That's the first woman to ever be the Prime Minister of Australia and so far the only woman.' The young girls looked at me in surprise. I know that, with their support and our support for them, there are going to be female prime ministers in the future and there are going to be female leaders. I'm very confident that a number of them are going to come from Dunkley.

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