Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) 11 October 2019 is International Day of the Girl Child, which promotes human rights and supports action on gender inequality across the globe; and

(b) this year’s theme is ‘GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable’ to celebrate achievements by, with and for girls since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) movements across the world are stepping up to address discrimination, exploitation and abuse facing girls, including stopping child marriage, promoting girls’ education and standing up to gender-based violence; and

(b) more needs to be done, with girls across the world still suffering disadvantage in many areas of their lives which can severely limit opportunities and life outcomes;

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) develop policies that will ensure Australian girls have every opportunity to live lives free from discrimination and achieve their potential; and

(b) actively work to support international communities to end gender-based discrimination and create opportunities for girls’ voices to be heard; and

(4) urges all Members of Parliament to take the lead in promoting gender equality in their own communities.

It's my pleasure to move this motion today to acknowledge the International Day of the Girl Child and recognise the work being done to promote gender equality here in Australia and across the world. The theme for this year is 'Girlforce: unscripted and unstoppable', celebrating the achievements we have made since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I remember as a teenager in 1995 listening to Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech in Beijing, where she declared human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights. It was a message that carried and resonated with women and girls across the world. The Beijing declaration provided a framework to advance and measure the rights of women and girls globally. It called for women to be able to realise all of their human rights and to be able to live without violence, to be able to attend school and complete education, to earn equal pay for work and to be able to choose when and where they marry. Almost 25 years later, we do have progress to celebrate. We are seeing more girls attending and completing school, fewer girls being forced into marriage and more girls speaking out and leading movements for change across the world. Figures from UNICEF show that in the past decade the proportion of girls married as children has decreased by 15 per cent. From 2000 to 2016, the number of girls out of school at a primary level fell from 58 million to 34 million. Young girls today can look around them and see other girls who are unstoppable as powerful agents of change—girls such Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who has fought for girls education, and Greta Thunberg, who has inspired a global movement for climate change action.

The number of women elected to this place has been increasing and we are inching closer to equal representation. We have more women than ever before as representatives here in this parliament. To mark International Day of the Girl Child, many of us have had girls or young women shadowing us as part of the Girls Takeover Parliament program. I really hope that this experience helps these young women to see a door open for them to be a voice in parliament. I also hope that it holds all of us already here to account, to remember that we have to speak up on their behalf.

Also marking this important day, Plan International have released their latest research report, She has a plan: the unique power of girls to lead change, in which almost 1,500 girls and young women from around Australia shared their hopes, dreams and concerns for the future, along with the people who inspire them. The Plan International report found that, overwhelmingly, girls and young women are eager to lead change on the social issues facing their generation. In fact, a whopping 91 per cent of those surveyed expressed exactly this. These girls and young women look up to fierce, determined and unapologetic female leaders for their inspiration, and I am so pleased to hear this.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16 : 50 to 17 : 05

Marking International Day of the Girl Child, Plan International has released their latest research report, She has a plan: the unique power of girls to lead change, in which almost 1,500 girls around Australia shared their hopes, dreams and concerns for the future along with the people who inspired them. Plan International found that, overwhelmingly, girls and young women are eager to lead change on the social issues facing their generation. In fact, a whopping 91 per cent expressed just that.

These girls and young women look up to fierce, determined and unapologetic female leaders for their inspiration. Importantly, they often cite their mothers as a main source of support in their lives—a responsibility that, as the mother of a very young daughter, I'm very conscious of and very privileged to hold. Of course we are not there yet, and our government must do its part in making sure all young women can reach their full potential and live out their dreams and hopes for the future.

Too many girls still face barriers such as violence and sexism and are prevented from gaining an education. Education does bring power and it does bring change. Some estimates show that, for every year of secondary schooling a girl receives, her earning ability is boosted by as much as 25 per cent. That's why it is particularly concerning that Australia's foreign aid budget for education decreased from almost $800 million in 2014-15 to just over $600 million in 2019-20.

Girl force truly is unstoppable, but we all have a responsibility to be active in recognising and addressing the systemic disadvantage and discrimination against girls in Australia and globally. It's an effort we must all dedicate ourselves to.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

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

Last week, 11 October marked the International Day of the Girl Child, a day to highlight and address the unique needs and challenges that girls face around the world. I take this opportunity to acknowledge all of the women sitting in this room, who were once girls themselves, and all those girls of now and the future who may be watching this speech, including my own two daughters.

We can rightly take pride in the milestones achieved for girls all around the world to date. We can celebrate the fact that, in the 25 years since the Beijing World Conference on Women, more girls today are attending and completing school and fewer are getting married or becoming mothers while still children. We can celebrate the fact that girls are breaking boundaries and stereotypes across all walks of life all around the world by translating their dreams to reality.

Most importantly, we can celebrate the fact that girls are creating a world that is relevant for them and for future generations. However, these milestones are hardly representative of the lived experiences of all girls in our world. In fact, the reality is that every 10 minutes an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. In humanitarian emergencies, gender based violence often increases, and such perpetration occurs when male caregivers subject girls to sexual and physical violence, child marriage, exploitation and trafficking.

I visited our nearest neighbour, PNG, earlier this year. This visit reinforced the stark differences that remain across the experiences of girls, and indeed boys, in even our closest neighbouring countries and that we cannot take for granted the enormous strides we have made here in Australia. In PNG the prevalence of intergenerational abuse, and especially gender based and sexual violence, completely shocked me. Over two-thirds of women had experienced forms of physical and sexual violence in their lifetime—that's two-thirds. Over 50 per cent of the sexual violence cases reported to clinics were against children. Shockingly, 41 per cent of men had admitted to perpetrating rape. This form of inequality is simply unacceptable and cannot continue. This is a critical time for the girls of our world, a time for collective responsibility—especially so in light of the warm winds of change occurring globally with respect to their rights and opportunities.

The Morrison government is serious about ensuring an equitable future in providing opportunities for women and girls. Our priority in this area begins with our regional Indonesia-Pacific efforts directed in empowering girls and women. As the former Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer emphasised, our ability to seriously tackle these issues depends on a shared commitment to gender equality and women's participation in this space.

Currently, many of the disadvantages faced by women and girls in our neighbouring countries are entrenched via poverty and amplified by the effects of natural disaster and war. We can take the first step in minimising the resulting conflict and instability by involving women as negotiators, as first responders and as leaders at the decision-making table. I'm proud of our government's investment in local programs in PNG aiming to reduce domestic violence and to improve education for girls. A key priority of our government is to help women, both here and overseas, to improve their independent economic security. We know that when women do well their families do well, and that our economy and nation prosper.

In November last year, the first-ever Women's Economic Security Statement was delivered, with more than $100 million dedicated to practical measures to help give women greater life choices, to build financial security and to grow the Australian economy. Additionally, the coalition government has invested the single-largest-ever Commonwealth funding of $328 million in prevention and frontline services to support the fourth action plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.

There is of course always more that can be, and should be, done. I want my daughters and the girls of both today and tomorrow to grow up in a world full of hope and opportunity. We must continue, as a government and as a nation, to provide pragmatic policies and solutions to ensure that every Australian girl has the opportunity to live her life free from discrimination and to achieve her potential. That is why I stand in support of this motion by the member for Jagajaga.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today, a privileged girl cum woman from a First World country—an MP from Melbourne's west who has seen her first female Prime Minister in this country. She was from a party that lives affirmative action, with 48 per cent female representation in our federal parliament as we stand here today. I stand to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, and I do so with my 2019 Labor colleagues. I thank the member for Jagajaga and I'm pleased to second the motion.

Like all Australian children, I'm lucky to have been born in a country with compulsory education; a country where females make up 51 per cent of tertiary students. But this is not the story around the world. On the International Day of the Girl Child, it is important that we look at what we can do globally to improve the lives of girls and women around the globe—and that begins with education.

We know that more than 130 million girls between the ages of six and 17 are not attending school, and that 15 million girls of primary school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa—will never enter a classroom. We know that violence negatively impacts access to education and a safe environment for learning for girls. We know that more than 41,000 girls under the age of 18 marry every day. Child brides are much more likely to drop out of school, and this affects the education and health of themselves and their children, as well as their ability to earn a living. We know that every day girls face barriers to education caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence and fragility.

The world is now talking about the need for education for girls and the transformative power education provides. I want to remind the members in this place that it is our duty not just to continue the work in our own forums but to influence and support the work in developing nations. Let's speed up this journey in developing countries; the best way to do that is through education. The answer is ensuring access to classrooms in communities across the globe. As our own former Prime Minister Gillard, board chair of the Global Partnerships for Education, has said:

If you want to change a nation, to change our planet, educate a girl.

I draw the House's attention to the work of contemporary women who champion gender equality and who are making considerable contributions to national and international debates about gender equality.

I commend our own historian—our very own history chick—Clare Wright, author of Beyond the Ladies Lounge, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom. In her work, Clare researches, celebrates and populates our history with the women missing from that history. She outlines for us how women were publicans across Melbourne and Victoria in the earliest settlements in our country. She outlines the women involved in our seminal historic moment: the rebellion at Eureka. And, in You Daughters of Freedom, she outlines the history of our suffragettes, the suffragist movement, and how our Australian women were leaders internationally in ensuring that women got the vote.

I also commend the work of Caroline Criado-Perez. Her groundbreaking book Invisible Women describes a female-shaped absent presence that is the gender data gap. Her research is prompting new conversations about how data bereft of representation from half the population is driving decisions in health, education, infrastructure, and, in fact, every facet of modern life. And it cannot do so without taking into consideration the 50 per cent of the population which today is so very pleasingly represented in this chamber.

I commend to the House the contemporary women leading work in gender equity. I count among them our own Julia Gillard, who is working tirelessly for women's representation and leadership for women as well as girls' education. I call upon members of this House to commit to a restoration of our aid budget so that we can assist in funding, planning and building systems to ensure that the basic human right to an education becomes a reality for girls in every community in every country across our globe.

Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 11 October, we marked the International Day of the Girl Child. It is a day to advocate for girls and young women around the world, particularly in regard to access to education, medical care, legal rights, and protection from discrimination and gender based violence. In 2019, the theme for the day is 'Girlforce: Unscripted and Unstoppable', celebrating significant progress in the rights of women and girls since the United Nations Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted almost 25 years ago. This visionary blueprint has allowed for global and local mobilisation for the rights of girls and young women. As a result, more girls have access to education and reproductive health rights, and there are fewer child marriages.

While this progress is a great cause for celebration, girls across the globe are unfortunately still facing significant disadvantages. In developing countries, girls are often denied basic rights as a result of sex and gender based discrimination. The International Day of the Girl Child aims to draw attention to preventing child marriage. It is estimated by World Vision that 700 million women are married before they are adults and one-third of those are married before the age of 15. The experience of child marriage is often linked with domestic and sexual abuse and often leads to girls becoming mothers while still children.

One of the key ways to address such inequality is through education. However, 130 million girls around the world have never even set foot in a classroom. Of these, 15 million young women will never learn to read or write. Many girls will never complete their education or are more likely to drop out of school than their male counterparts. Again, this is often due to sex and gender based discrimination which is prevalent across many cultures and countries. Education is crucial to breaking this intergenerational cycle of inequality as it offers the possibility of employment and financial independence. Girls who have received secondary schooling are six times less likely to become child brides, and educated mothers are twice as likely to send their children to school. While girls in Australia enjoy many freedoms that have been hard fought for, we still have to encourage girls to combat the social challenges they face in our society.

The Morrison government has made the largest-ever Commonwealth investment of $328 million for combatting violence against women and children. It is why our government is legislating for tougher sentences for child-sex offenders. All children should be safe online and offline, and we need to address the ways that girls can be vulnerable to violence and sexual exploitation.

Another area I am passionate about is the role that sport can play in the lives of young girls. This is an arena where girls and young women continue to exceed the expectations of all Australians, and we are so proud of the strides being made by girls across all levels of sport. The coalition has provided $150 million to support the development of female change-room facilities at sporting grounds and community swimming facilities across Australia. My electorate of Reid has been fortunate to have a number of sporting amenity upgrades so that the increasing number of girls playing sport can be provided for. And, of course, girls are increasingly proving to be valuable leaders in all aspects of Australian life. As a mother of two daughters, I hope that their desire to lead with conviction on matters that they are passionate about is never curbed by gender and sex based stereotypes.

We know that young girls can be incredible forces of dynamic empowerment. Around the world, adolescent girls are leading movements for change. As a government, we will continue to support their efforts, whether it is through our international commitments or through supporting the grassroots work of girls in our own communities.

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of a motion acknowledging the International Day of the Girl Child. I'm very proud to do so to support my friend and colleague the member for Jagajaga and the seconder, the member for Lalor, because I'm part of a party that is absolutely committed to gender equality. I am extremely proud to be standing here today as the first woman to represent an electorate named after Louisa Dunkley, a pioneering unionist and feminist who, at the turn of the last century, not only led a successful campaign for an equal pay for women provision in the Commonwealth Public Service Act but was known to be one of the leading forces internationally for feminism and for equality within the union movement and the suffragette movement.

It is somewhat surprising, then, that it's taken so long for a woman to represent the electorate named after Louisa Dunkley, but I can tell this House that people in my community are very proud to live in an electorate named after a woman who fought for equality for everyone, because, as she said, equal pay is not just about the equality for the women who work day by day, side by side with the men. It's also about properly valuing the work that both men and women do, and that is something that we continue to strive for.

In the short time since I have been the member for Dunkley, I have come across so many amazing young women and girls who are already leaders in their community—young women and girls who sometimes have been facing what others might see as insurmountable barriers to success, but it is actually those barriers that are encouraging them and inspiring them to make their voices heard.

In my community we are honouring International Day of the Girl Child not just today but every day by trying to support those girls who want to be leaders of the future. Plan International's research has shown that 91 per cent of girls and young women express a strong desire to be leaders to tackle the biggest challenges of our time. We all know, or most of us know, that one of the biggest challenges of our time is climate change. One only has to talk to school children to understand that they know that that's the biggest challenge of their time and the future. So it's probably no surprise that the Plan International research also talks about young people wanting to have their voices heard on climate change. We have a parliamentary friends of tackling climate change group, which today heard from experts about the impact of climate change on health. All of those experts, who coincidentally were all women, which was a terrific thing to see, spoke about young people and young girls' desire to have their voices heard to have the future protected. That's what International Day of the Girl Child wants to do.

The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative talks about the inspiration for 'unscripted and unstoppable', the theme of the day, being to:

… equip girls with the power, knowledge and space to voice their passions and concerns. The global community must create more opportunity for girls' voices to be heard and safe spaces for their participation in decision-making. Leading change for girls is our collective responsibility.

No-one in this place could put it any better. It is our collective responsibility. We must all work together.

In my electorate, Tegan Kynes, who I met at Elisabeth Murdoch College and then again at a fundraiser for cancer, is a survivor of childhood leukaemia. She is 16 years old. Her ambition is to be the captain of the Australian cricket team. Chloe Kopeck is a young woman from my electorate, also 16 years old, who contacted me to say: 'Can I please come and do work experience in your office and come to Canberra, because I want to be the Prime Minister of Australia. I want my voice to be heard.' These are young girls who are so inspiring, and they deserve to have their names and their voices heard in this parliament.

Over the weekend I took the children of friends of mine on tours of Parliament House, and the girls were all inspired, standing in front of Julia Gillard's portrait. I found myself saying, 'That's the first woman to ever be the Prime Minister of Australia and so far the only woman.' The young girls looked at me in surprise. I know that, with their support and our support for them, there are going to be female prime ministers in the future and there are going to be female leaders. I'm very confident that a number of them are going to come from Dunkley.

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My passion to empower young women and girls didn't just start when I entered this building. I worked at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. At the centre I started my own think tank program because I wanted to look at what we were doing in Australia and the United States for women and girls as they progress through their career from entry to leadership positions. So I established W21—The 21st Century Global Women's Initiative. This allowed me to explore important issues around women and work, and to work with the world's best academics in this space, particularly in Australia and the United States.

I launched W21 at the G20 in 2014. We looked at how we could decrease the gender gap by 25 per cent by 2025. Why were we doing this? For sustainable economic growth, not just in Australia but around the world. I also looked at the business case for gender equality and worked with a wonderful academic called Iris Bohnet from Harvard University. Here we discussed creating a pathway for women right through from early career to leadership. In this work we discovered that mentorship and sponsorship played such a role for a woman's success throughout her career. I also worked with Sydney University's Business School and commissioned a report called Women at work: Australia and the United States. Here, one of the key areas that we looked at was women in directorship roles and how we were doing in Australia and the US.

I don't think anyone would be surprised to know that we've still got a lot of work to do. A lot of young women aspire to be women in leadership roles, and women who do reach the top have an obligation, in some part, to support women coming up through the ranks. The reason I did this is that we still do have a lot of work to do in both countries and we can learn from each other about supporting women.

This led me to establish, at a local level—because not all things are grand; we can translate this work locally—a not-for-profit that looked at how to help support women in social housing to transition out of social housing, after intergenerational welfare or being in domestic violence situations, into housing independence and financial independence. Here I ran a program that partnered women in the community—mentors, successful businesswomen and successful community women and men who wanted to support these women out of social housing. There are a lot of barriers for everyone in social housing to transition to independence, which is what we all want—jobs and independence from social housing.

We have other work to do locally, and I'm very committed to this. With the establishment of the Nancy Bird Walton international airport, the aerotropolis and science park will deliver thousands of jobs. I'll be focusing very much on local jobs for women, in particular, because here it is about activating our full workforce's potential for success. This is allowing young girls and women to be interested in STEM—in science, technology, maths and even space industry.

Recently, the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology joined me to launch the Girls in STEM Toolkit at Jamison High School. We joined students from years 8 to 10 to launch the kit, which aims to build female students' confidence about taking STEM subjects at school. The minister and I were able to view other STEM activity, such as drones that the girls were building and four-wheel drive challenges. Girls as young as 12 are leading the way with innovation. They are our young pioneers. These girls are our future, and I want to create as many opportunities as possible for them.

We have appointed Australia's first Women in STEM Ambassador, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith. She is a strong advocate for gender equality and is raising awareness of issues and prosecuting the case for change. We have also launched the Advancing Women in STEM Strategy. As someone who ran a think tank program in an academic institution that focused on gender equality, I think it is pleasing to see more women having opportunities in our higher education sector. It's great that Western Sydney University's Professor Belinda Medlyn has received an ARC award. Belinda is one of only 19 Australian Laureate Fellows in 2019 who will share in $53.8 million to lead research projects over five years. We need to foster the potential of more women in research and STEM fields.

The Morrison government is committed to implementing policies that ensure Australian girls have every opportunity to live free from discrimination and to achieve their full potential.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.