Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that 8 March 2011 is International Women’s Day;

(b)

acknowledges:

(i)

the work that UN Women, the United Nations (UN) organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, undertakes to improve the conditions of women both domestically and internationally, and

(ii)

that despite the many rights and privileges Australian women enjoy, there remain challenges that we must strive to overcome;

(c)

notes, with concern, that:

(i)

in Australia, violence against women is still far too common with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing that one in three women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and

(ii)

harmful practices, including female genital mutilation, have been committed against women in certain communities and societies for many years and that such harmful practices are considered by some to be part of accepted cultural practice;

(d)

reaffirms its opposition to so-called traditional cultural practices which allow women to be subjected to crude and unrestrained primitive practices that would not be tolerated in Australia; and

(e)

recognises that Australians have a fundamental obligation to speak out and protect the human rights of women, both in Australia and overseas.

Question agreed to.