ABORIGINAL WOMEN'S GATHERING

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:17): I seek leave to ask the Minister for the Status of Women a question about the State Aboriginal Women's Gathering.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA: Recently, the minister informed the chamber of the upcoming South Australian Aboriginal Women's Gathering. Will the minister advise the council on this important event?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for this important question and his ongoing interest in these very important policy matters. The annual State Aboriginal Women's Gathering was held last week at West Beach, as I recently mentioned in this place. I was very pleased to speak to delegates on the initiative arising from last year's event. This important initiative has resulted in 10 Aboriginal women being awarded TAFE qualifications.

The initiative has meant that women have become qualified through the Recognition of Prior Learning program. I am pleased to advise that this program is funded through the commonwealth government's Productivity Places Program, which is administered by DFEEST in SA. Coming out of last year's gathering, the Office for Women supported 10 women at TAFE SA Regional, and I was very pleased to inform gathering delegates that all 10 have now successfully completed the requirements for management qualifications, receiving either diplomas of Community Services Coordination or advanced diplomas of Community Sector Management.

I am sure members will agree that this is a very practical and useful outcome, because it has allowed more Aboriginal women to draw on high-quality managerial skills and knowledge to help build their lives and, indeed, skills to help build their communities. I have asked the Office for Women to look into further opportunities for Aboriginal women to gain qualifications in 2011.

As members may recall, the theme of this year's gathering was Governance. In keeping with this, delegates heard about the establishment of two new national bodies that will provide important opportunities for Aboriginal women's voices to be heard beyond their own local communities.

The Gillard government's National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance are developed now. There has been much discussion about these new structures, including a workshop presented by Kerry Arabena, co-chair of the national congress, and also Klynton Wanganeen, executive member of the national congress.

I am told that delegates appreciated the chance to have open discussions with people directly involved in developing the national structures. Dr Kerry Arabena's energy and passion for the national congress, her openness to discuss its development and her hopes for its future flowed on to the women and resulted in many completing their membership forms and handing them to her there and then.

While acknowledging that the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance is still very much in its formative stage, delegates supported the importance of a women's specific national body and resolved to develop formal linkages between it and the Gathering. That was one of the other important challenges for the Gathering this year, to look at ways that they might provide formal connections and/or links with this new body.

I was pleased to hear from a number of delegates about how useful they had found the information provided to them. I felt that there was a real sense of optimism for the future, as the women considered how they would ensure their viewpoints were fed to the Gillard government.