Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The weekend before last I had the privilege of attending an event in my electorate to acknowledge International Women's Day. This event was held at the PCYC Hornsby Ku-ring-gai in Waitara in my electorate. It was an outstanding display of the capabilities, capacities and contribution of women, globally and in my electorate in Bradfield. It was an opportunity for women representing many different organisations and communities to connect and to exchange their ideas and their experiences. There was a rich array of activities which occurred as part of this event, including dance therapy, a Korean dance performance by Eun Joo Oh and a discussion about the services on offer to support women in my electorate. I congratulate the Rotary Club of Wahroonga, the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Women's Shelter, the Women's Shed Hornsby Ku-ring-gai and the other organisations that were involved in coordinating this important event. I was very pleased to be at it.

I note that the second round of the Morrison government's Boosting Female Founders Initiative was opened on International Women's Day. The aim of the program is to support Australian women establishing start-up businesses and to see female leaders successfully launch their ideas into the marketplace. The first round of the Boosting Female Founders Initiative in 2020 saw one deserving recipient in Bradfield, Ms Samantha Devlin, from Turramurra. Ms Devlin is the founder of The Footnotes Pty Ltd. That company's project, The Network Effect by The Careers Department, received $240,000 under the initiative.

The project sees the development of a digital careers platform intended to develop customised work experience modules to build domestic and international school scalability and to leverage the school network as a vehicle to reach parents. I want to also acknowledge another constituent, Dr Edwina Tanner, who recently received funding under the business research and innovation initiative, a $95,000 grant, to further her research into real-time automated detection of whales using novel thermal sensor systems. International Women's Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of women, and I also welcome the success of these women business founders in my electorate.

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