Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion from the member for Newcastle that we celebrate women's achievements and highlight their unique challenges on International Women's Day, on Sunday 8 March. I take this opportunity to acknowledge all the women sitting here in the chamber. We stand here today because of the hard work and strength of generations of women that have come before us, women who have fought for our right to vote and our right to stand. We should all be proud that Australia was one of the first countries in the world to enable women the right to vote and stand 120 years ago.

I would like to honour one of those early suffragettes in the UK, my cousin Margaret Bondfield, who was the first female member of cabinet in the UK parliament almost 100 years ago. In those days, women, like my cousin Margaret Bondfield, and like our party's cofounder Dame Elizabeth Couchman, had to choose between public life and having a family. The legacy of these women is left to us to champion.

I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor in the seat of Higgins, the former Minister for Women, the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer—the first member for Higgins who was truly committed to gender equality. Kelly understood that financial security is key to enabling women to have the freedom to follow their dreams and have the power to stand on their own two feet. This is why we should celebrate that, as a result of the work of Kelly and the Morrison government, women's workforce participation is at a record high of just over 61 per cent in Australia and the gender pay gap is now at a record low of 14 per cent. The Morrison government is also working to address the challenges of women returning to the workforce after taking time out of their careers to look after their family. I know what that's like. I have four children myself. We've committed $75 million over four years to our mid-career checkpoint, helping up to 40,000 people who've taken time out of their career to care for their family. This will tailor career advice, coach and train them, and help them get back into the workforce.

It's days like today that we have to take the opportunity to shine the spotlight on the longstanding abuses that women have had to face, and this includes violence that is perpetrated by men against women, not only here in Australia but across the globe. There are 111 countries that have no repercussions for husbands who rape their wives, 45 countries do not have specific laws against domestic violence and 35 per cent of women globally have experienced sexual or physical violence.

'Surely,' I hear you say, 'Australia is immune from these dreadful statistics?' But in the last week alone the staggering figures of women who experienced intimate partner violence have again been brought home, here in Australia, in a devastating way. Words cannot describe the shock of the nation at the terrible event that occurred when Hannah Clarke and her beautiful children were set alight and killed by someone who should have been supporting and protecting them. Unfortunately, this event is not a horrible and tragic one-off. In Australia, one woman is killed every nine days by a partner or a former partner. One in six Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner. Every two minutes somewhere in Australia the police are called to a domestic violence incident. By highlighting and talking about this issue, it brings it out of the darkness and from behind closed doors, and we can work to understand it and then fix it.

It should be the commitment of all governments to create and prioritise a safe, secure and equal status for women in our economy and our society. This year's International Women's Day 2020 theme mirrors that commitment. The campaign theme is #EachforEqual. The theme recognises that an equal world is an enabled world. Despite the dreadful statistics there is still much to celebrate on IWD. We can celebrate the fact that around the world more girls today are attending and completing school. Fewer are getting married or becoming mothers while still children. We can celebrate the fact that women are breaking boundaries and stereotypes across all walks of life all around the world and translating dreams to reality. I hope for a world where my daughters and yours are truly equal. Individually we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions all day, every day.

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