Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My first career was as a high school science teacher, developing the curriculum and programs to promote science literacy. While there was not a noticeable gender imbalance in the science classroom, there has been a steady decline in overall numbers and the engagement of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers, referred to as STEM. Originally, science and maths were compulsory subjects; unfortunately, that changed. The federal government has developed a number of initiatives to help increase the participation of all students in STEM subjects, but particularly projects targeted at girls. One of these is the Curious Minds summer school hosted by the University of New South Wales, where more than 50 girls from across the country share their passion for maths, science, technology and engineering. Throughout the six-month course, the girls have an opportunity to explore all aspects of these subjects in a fun and supportive environment, boosting their confidence and skills, as well as helping them make like-minded friends and connections to set them up for a life filled with science and engineering.

In addition, many of the national employer groups are establishing mentoring and marketing strategies to encourage women to join their ranks. Pocket Sally is such an initiative. A small cardboard cut-out is placed in engineering sites all over NSW, showing that women can do anything and go anywhere. This was developed by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia, New South Wales. The strategy involved the young members of this organisation forming a team to develop the idea. I personally want to encourage young women to be unlimited in their thinking when it comes to their future career options, and Pocket Sally is one highly visual way of promoting that.

Australia is investing more than $13 million over five years to encourage more women to choose and stay in STEM research, related careers, start-ups and entrepreneurial firms. Recently, I was asked by the Hon. Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training, to launch digIT, a summer school initiative developed by the Australian Mathematics Trust, funded through the Australian government's National Innovation and Science Agenda. The program includes mentoring for the students from ICT professionals to encourage discussions about study options and career pathways. Programs like digIT are critical for this and future generations of all students. Employment trends show that 75 per cent of Australia's fastest-growing careers demand skills in digital literacy, science and technology, engineering or maths. The students come from regional and rural backgrounds. There were lower number of girls participating, which means we need to improve for next year. Since I have been elected, I have had the opportunity to sponsor at least two primary aged female students to attend robotics camps. Bucephalus was helped to sponsor an Australian champion team from Ulladulla High School to go to the USA. Now yet another winning regional group, Team Shuffle, has been assisted to go to England with their innovative project.

We still need to develop processes where girls are given equal opportunities overall, both here and throughout the world. Especially in countries where the educational opportunities are yet to be advanced, we must collectively work on simple, inexpensive strategies that can advantage young women and girls to participate more readily. One such example is the Western Pacific Sanitation Marketing and Innovation Program, more simply known as the Water for Women project, coordinated by WASH. The primary function is to build all-inclusive toilets by encouraging community business and savings enterprise to bring communities together. This enables girls to attend schools safely and is a catalyst for social growth.

Amazing changes for a girl's education can be gained with this type of project, and then we can encourage participation in STEM more generally. As we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which was 11 February, we must also focus on enabling access to basic education as a resource for all girls, so they can become educated women and advance their nations in the long term. While this is a stepping stone to acknowledge the contribution women make to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, it is also important to acknowledge that only one in four IT graduates and fewer than one in eight engineering graduates are women. Less than one-fifth of senior researchers at research institutes and Australian universities are women and the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce overall is only one-quarter women.

In December, the coalition government announced the first STEM projects to be funded through the women in STEM and entrepreneurship grants program. The 24 projects will receive $3.9 million over the next two years and be rolled out across Australia, including in regional areas. These activities will include drone programming camps for girls, engineering skills development for women in regional areas and workshops to boost women's entrepreneurship. These are remarkable initiatives and are a way of encouraging women and girls to look beyond the usual stereotypes, become industry leaders and know that they are more than capable of becoming the flowering product of STEM.

House adjourned at 20:00