WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

The Hon. L.R. BREUER (Giles) (16:20): I want send my thoughts out to the people of Kenya in their current crisis in Nairobi and that very sad act of terrorism that is happening there. So many innocent lives have been lost. I have spent some time in Kenya and my daughter lived over there for almost a year, working for an organisation called World Youth. There are many programs operating in Kenya through World Youth, and they give invaluable assistance to the country.

My daughter worked there with many other wonderful young women. Young women who had fire in their bellies, with the guts, determination and courage to go to an unknown country to work in isolated areas and to put their safety at risk. These young women have far more spirit than the women in my age group did. Most of us would never have dared to do what I see these young women doing nowadays. I think my generation did very well raising our daughters to give them that sassiness and strength of character to do those sorts of things.

But what can we now offer them? A world awaiting to embrace them with open arms, to use their abilities, a world of business, of community service, of politics and policy making, to make the world a better place? No; in many ways nothing much has changed from our grandmothers' day. What sort of message are we giving these young women and those following on in the next generation when, after the election of the new Liberal government and with a cabinet of 20, only one woman is appointed, after the election of at least 19 Liberal women, as compared with 38 Labor women? The new PM had the nerve to say that he was disappointed there was only one woman in his cabinet. Members of the Liberal Party were falling over themselves to say it was done on merit. What an insult to the women of Australia that is. What absolute rubbish. It has to be more than merit based.

Across the floor from me we have three very capable women. They would run rings around many of the men in their cabinet. You cannot tell me that there are not more very talented women out there who should be sitting alongside them, rather than some of the men who are there. It is all about sexism. It is about the lack of ability to recognise the talents of women. I have seen some incredible Liberal women outside of the parliament with far greater ability and merit than some of those members opposite, and I am not talking about the female members, I am talking about the male members.

Figures show that there is a lack of women on boards and in senior management roles in Australia. Less than one in three members of boards in Australia are female. I am on the board of a quite significant company in South Australia and only two out of the nine members of that board are women. When I mentioned this at the last appointment to the board of a male, I was met with blank stares. The guys just did not get what I was on about.

Australian society still does not get it. I have told my daughter that she can do anything, but I should have said: 'You can do anything if you are a male.' We have had our first woman prime minister and I have never been so appalled at the treatment of a prime minister. It was a disgrace to all of us in Australia. She was constantly attacked by the media, by men, by women, even by our own party. She was tough and she was strong, but I have never seen such disrespect shown to a person of her standing.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. L.R. BREUER: How she survived it I do not know. She may have made some mistakes at the end, but she never ever had a chance as the PM. Two-thirds of our population do not see this. They do not see the stereotyping that goes on where women are involved. Most people do not realise what they are doing.

I used to tell a story, when I was working at TAFE, of the orchestra in which there were very few women. They were auditioned, but they were never picked. So, they put the women behind the curtain and auditioned them and, immediately, the numbers went up to over 50 per cent of women. This was an exercise that showed that we do not get it.

We do not understand what we are doing; we do it without realising. So, what are we saying to our daughters, to this generation of wonderful young women? We are saying to them: 'We have prepared you well, but we have very little to offer you.' I think it is time that we changed.