Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure tonight that I rise to talk about something that is very close to my heart: empowering young women to believe they can do whatever they want to do in this world and not be in any way deterred from trying to achieve the very best they can in their lives. Today, we launched the Country to Canberra essay competition, which is open to young women in year 10 and year 12 from rural, regional and remote communities in Australia who aspire to be future leaders. It is a 500-word essay competition and this year the subject of the essay was, 'If you were Prime Minister for a day, what would you do to help to achieve gender equality?'

This is the second year of the competition. I would like to acknowledge Hannah Wandel, a young lady from Blyth in South Australia, my home state, who came up with the idea for this competition and ran it all herself. Last year, she had very limited resources, but she managed to get some sponsorship, which enabled her to bring a winner from three states to Canberra. She was able to pay for their expenses and include a tour of Parliament House and a tour of the War Memorial. The winners were able to meet a number of women in this parliament, including the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, and some who work in the federal government. Barnaby Joyce also spoke to them. The then ACT Chief Minister and now colleague here in the Senate, Katy Gallagher, also met with them. They were able to meet people who had already achieved success in their careers.

The essays that were put forward by these young women had an amazing diversity of opinion. Last year, the essay topic was along the lines of whether they believed they had been encumbered in any way in achieving what they wanted to achieve because they were women. Listening to some of the comments we got from those who came to Canberra was interesting, including the competition winner, Vesna Clarke, who said:

The main message I took away with me from the trip was to take risks, no matter what people say or if you doubt yourself, just do it. Almost always, you will surprise yourself.

The whole experience, including actually writing the essay, being published and the Power Trip was life changing. I became more confident in my writing and opinions, sharing them with others and being published on Country to Canberra was even more of a confidence boost! I have learnt to not hold back and that writing is one of the most powerful ways to express your ideas.

That was a very positive response by Vesna to her success. Another finalist last year, Ella Graham from Melrose in South Australia, gave her essay the title 'Licked before we have begun'. She told the story of her country sport experience and spoke about mothers who defend the position of football as being more important than netball. Ella wrote:

It's disheartening to watch strong, intelligent women, hide their brains and accept that their daughter's lives don't have equal value to their sons.

Ella highlighted that more needs to be done to empower women and young girls in her particular community and that the sporting community is a really good place to start.

The diversity of views was really interesting and there were many views in between, but I picked those two because they were so contrasting. It clearly demonstrates the different views that some women are given the opportunity of empowerment more easily within their communities than others and some of them see the opportunities more readily than others.

Before I conclude, I would like to mention that last weekend was the 70th anniversary of the Women's Committee Council of the Liberal Party. The celebrations were held in Adelaide. One issue that was raised was having greater women representation in the Liberal Party in this place and in other parliaments around Australia. It was interesting to hear the views of those who spoke at the conference and it was also heartening to hear the Prime Minister say that he was going to champion the cause, stop talking and actually start walking, and doing some proactive things to make sure that we see more women in parliament. A number of comments were made during the conference but there are a few I will put on the record. A comment I made was that I do not support quotas, I do not support lists and I certainly do not support captain's picks.

I am a great believer in meritocracy but, every now and again, we have to make sure that the people that we have in place do meet that meritocracy rule. As time goes by, we see many women perhaps who three or four years ago may not have met the criterion of being the best person for the job but maybe these days they do.

It is very clear that: if we are going to say that we do not support quotas, lists and captain's picks—and I say I do not—then we have to be more proactive and create an environment where women feel more encouraged to put their hand up in the first place, where they are prepared to start on the journey to be in this place. It is certainly a journey that has been extraordinarily fulfilling for me—and I am sure Senator Payne would also say that it has been a fantastic opportunity. Somehow we have to communicate the opportunities that this place offers to the women who we seek to sponsor or mentor.

We must create a work environment that has the flexibility for women, particularly women with children, to have the power to make decisions within their workplace that best suit their particular circumstances. It takes me eight hours to get here from my home. I am lucky that my youngest child no longer requires my 24-hour care, because he is now at boarding school—I had to make the decision to put him in boarding school, because I was here. We must create a family-friendly environment so that people, not just women, who have families feel they have the tools and the flexibility to work here and that they can manage a work-life balance that is not going to prohibit them from putting their hand up to come here in the first place.

It is the responsibility of all of us—not just the women in this place, not just the women of the world—including the men, to make sure that we mentor, we sponsor and we encourage young people, whether they be men or women, but particularly women, so they understand that a career as a federal member of parliament, a state member of parliament or even a local government representative is worth while and something to aspire to. We have got to stop demeaning politics and this place. We have got to start putting some integrity and respect back into the profession. Until we do that, it is very easy for people to decide that they do not actually want to be politicians, because the respect has gone out of the profession.

In conclusion, I would like to congratulate Hannah Wandel and the young women who have put the Country to Canberra essay competition together. It is wonderful to see young women being so proactive when others have not been. I look forward to reading the essays from the contributors this year. I look forward to welcoming the winners from each state to Canberra. We have the resources to bring the winners to Canberra so they can meet the women who represent this parliament, whether from my side, the government side; the opposition; the crossbenches; the Greens; or senior members of the public service. They will also meet other young women from rural and regional areas and have the same opportunities to access people that many of our city cousins have.

As somebody who took on the role of being a country senator, I make sure that my primary focus in this place is always to represent people from rural and regional South Australia. It is something that is close to my heart in two respects: firstly, it encourages and empowers women to take control and achieve the best they can; and, secondly, that those young women come from rural and regional areas in Australia.

Senate adjourned at 19:56