Women's Suffrage Anniversary

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:04): Thank you, Mr President, for your call. My question is to the Minister for Human Services.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Are the opposition benches finished?

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, I am not giving your side the call again for questions for the remainder of question time. Can the crossbench please prepare themselves. The Hon. Ms Lee.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Thank you, Mr President. My question is to the Minister for Human Services about the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage in South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: They don't care about women's suffrage.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Yes, don't you care about this milestone?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Order! The Hon. Ms Lee, please state your question again.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Thank you, Mr President. My question is to the Minister for Human Services about the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage in South Australia. As this is an incredible milestone celebration, can the minister please provide an update to the council—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, it is an important question on women's suffrage. Show some respect.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: They already got it. She wrote it all out. Goodness gracious. She already has the question. She already has it written down. She wrote it for The Hon. Ms Lee. Let's not pretend.

The PRESIDENT: Show some respect. It is an important topic, The Hon. Mr Hunter. Start the question again, The Hon. Ms Lee.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: Thank you, Mr President. My question is to the Minister for Human Services about the 125^th anniversary of women's suffrage in South Australia. As this is an incredible milestone celebration, can the minister please provide an update to the council about how the government is supporting the community to recognise this momentous occasion?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for her question.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, I would like to hear the minister's answer on an important topic. Minister, please do not pick up bad habits from the Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I am struggling to talk at the moment, for which I apologise, but it is very difficult.

The PRESIDENT: There is no need to apologise. If the minister wishes to speak in response to—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition! I may carry on the penalty to the next question time.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Thank you, Mr President. December 2019 marks the 125^th anniversary of landmark legislation that enabled women in South Australia, for the first time anywhere in Australia, to vote in general elections and to stand as members of parliament. This incredible achievement was the end result of years of campaigning, letter writing, signature gathering and lobbying by men and women in South Australia who put their passion into action. Gaining the vote was a huge step towards gender equality in South Australia and meant that women could participate in public life by having their say at general elections.

The theme for the 125^th anniversary is 'Their triumph, our motivation', which recognises how the extraordinary efforts of the suffragists in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries drive our continued efforts in working towards gender equality. Through the Office for Women, we have commissioned a graphic, which was designed by Jayne Arnott and is available on the Office for Women site, and which people can download and add to their events. We have a hashtag of #SAsuffrage125, which I note some members have used already.

The official colours of the 125^th anniversary commemoration campaign are gold and purple. Golden yellow symbolises enlightenment, illumination and intellect and is historically associated with the suffragist movement in South Australia. While its origin is not known, a gold ribbon tied up the Great Petition urging parliament to give women the vote. Purple symbolises reverence and dignity and was associated with the British suffragette struggle of the 20^th century.

I think it is important to distinguish between the terms 'suffragists' and 'suffragettes' because they are sometimes used incorrectly interchangeably. Suffragettes is associated with the campaign in the UK, particularly because it was led by women, whereas in Australia it was led by both women and men.

We have provided some community grants to 28 organisations that are involved in a range of events, some of which have started to occur, and there is a calendar of events. We had a kick-off event that was held at the Science Exchange, which examined 2094, which would be 200 years from the historic event. It was called 'Mars 2094: A Gender Equal World'. This took place on 13 March and a range of panellists spoke, including Dr Kristin Alford, who is from the Museum of Discovery at UniSA; Wing Commander Marija Jovanovich; Lucy McEwen of Fyfe and Women in Resources; and Shona Reid of Reconciliation SA.

There are a number of events that are also coming up that involve councils and the History Trust, and with history month a range of events are taking place. There is a state dinner to be held on 6 June. I am pleased to see that other portfolios have also been participating in this.

The Minister for Education, the Hon. John Gardner, and myself recently announced that a women's suffrage competition was being held to celebrate the event. So we are very thrilled that a lot of organisations are getting on board. I encourage people to check the Office for Women website for the range of events that may be taking place that they can participate in, and I look forward to honourable members of this chamber participating in events for this year.