Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, there is a netball program, to build the capacity of young people. But we also provided a program in which we look at leadership across a range of opportunities to develop the capacity for women. Our women in our community are our strength.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

We fund those, member for Sydney. We fund a number of programs, right across the nation. They're not just one major program. We fund according to a region or a specific need. I can provide you with a much more detailed briefing on some of the programs that exist in places like Roebourne, designed to protect young women, designed to build their capability. Women play a significant role in those pathways through high school, and the funding is significant. We have not lost sight of the need. The Clontarf program commenced in order to deal with school attendance and suicide rates, and giving young men an opportunity to find a place where they were comfortable and that was engaging and that worked through opportunities into league football. But our women's programs are now focusing on the same opportunity and intent, and we are not going to have one prevail over the other.

Your question is important in the sense—and I need you to listen—that these programs are also local-specific. We are doing programs in which we support fashion development by young women in certain regions. They design their own fashions, sell them and make a statement about the importance of their capability to be designers. They have shown what they have done in Japan, through the UAE and through Europe, and they will continue to do that. I look at the work that June Oscar, the commissioner, has done. She is growing the capacity for our women to have voices across a range of opportunities. We should not just have it as a particular program; schools also focus on the needs of our women, and schools I go into are supporting young Indigenous women to be strong and capable. I sat with one group— (Time expired)

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