Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today is International Women's Day. Happy International Women's Day to everyone! Today we celebrate the incredible achievement of women all over the world. I'm so lucky to represent a seat that is named after a woman, Dame Dorothy Tangney. She was the first woman to serve as a Labor senator, and she served for almost 25 years.

Today, I was proud to be present for the unveiling of the Dame Dorothy Tangney and Dame Enid Lyons statues. They are now immortalised, never to be forgotten and always a reminder to women in politics that you can do it too. Without their presence and perseverance in what was a male-dominated race at that time, our government would not be who we are today.

We acknowledge that we still have a long way to go in achieving true gender equality. Women continue to face significant challenges in our society. I say this not because I have a wife, daughters or granddaughter whom I love, admire and learn from; I'm saying this because women are equal to men. So let us work together to create a world where every woman and girl has the opportunity to try to succeed equal to that of men, because we as men may be the bones, but women are the mind, the body and the soul of our system.

See this speech in context