Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to shine a spotlight on the exceptional young women who participated in the recent Young Liberal Women's Leadership Summit in my home town of Melbourne. Now in its third year, this event creates invaluable opportunities for young women from across the country to come together, build networks, develop their skills and foster connections that will help shape their futures and the future of our great Liberal Party.

Summit attendees were lucky enough to hear from Liberal women that have already pursued a parliamentary career and are doing some impressive and important work—people like my colleague Senator Chandler, Zoe McKenzie MP and the state member for Kew, Jess Wilson. They were also able to hear from our amazing candidates for the upcoming federal election, who are just beginning their parliamentary journey.

I had the pleasure of speaking at the summit myself and was able to share a little bit about my own pathway to politics—the challenges, the setbacks and the successes that have made it all worthwhile. I also had the opportunity to speak about the Liberal Party's new strategic advancement network for women, the Margaret Guilfoyle Network, which brings together like-minded women from across Australia to offer them a unique professional network and forum in which to learn, engage and connect. Just this week, the Margaret Guilfoyle Network had two very successful events which provided an opportunity for Liberal aligned women to meet other like-minded women and engage in policy discussions.

It was a genuine pleasure to meet and connect with such talented and ambitious young women at all of these events. I know firsthand how important it is for young women to be able to see what's possible and to understand that, though the road may be tough, leadership is absolutely within their reach. That should be so, so much easier for them. They are such talented young women. I'd like to thank everyone who attended these events over the past few weeks. I'd also like to thank Sarah Halnan and Lizzy Wheeler for their work in organising the Young Liberals Women's Leadership Summit, and I very much look forward to attending again next year.