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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-03-06 Daily Xml
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GENDER WORKPLACE REPORT

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:35): In the spirit of International Women's Day and the various celebrations that are happening this week, I thought it would be interesting to look at what information was available with regard to workers compensation and gender, particularly to do with South Australia. Sadly, there were very few references that I could find.

I am pleased to say that the Working Women's Centre has come through yet again with the project work they did on the Gender Workplace Inquiry and Return to Work Research Project. This was a snapshot study of South Australia from August 2003 to July 2004, involving people's experiences of workplace injury and rehabilitation; whether the issues were the same for men and women; what helps and hinders people during rehabilitation and return to work—as we are told, we have the worst record in the country of return to work, so I think this is particularly relevant—both in the workplace and in the workers rehabilitation and compensation system; and strategies that represent the best practice for assisting workers' rehabilitation and return to work.

There were a number of groups involved in this project, including: the Women's Standing Committee of the United Trades and Labor Council, now SA Unions; the Manufacturing Workers Union; Business SA; the Equal Opportunity Commission; Dale Street Women's Health Centre; the Migrant Women's Lobby Group; and also people from the South Australian Council of Social Services.

As part of the background research for this project, I am pleased to see that the statistical profile that I commissioned with the Premier's Women's Council was used, and it is titled, 'A wealth of information: Looking at the social and economic position of women in South Australia'. That states that over 50 per cent of the population are women, so I think we need to bear in mind that we should always be represented over 50 per cent in the things that we pursue, but also that we need to look at some of the responsibilities that women have.

The other reference in this document is Professor Barbara Pocock's The Work/Life Collision that was printed in 2003. What that publication states—in line with the ABS data that is available—is that in 1997, 90 per cent of women participated in housework activities—I would like to know who the 10 per cent were: I would love to join them—which involved cooking, laundry and other cleaning work, compared to 63 per cent of men, and women spent 154 minutes a day on housework compared to 62 minutes for men.

There is no information readily available on other household activities, such as home and garden maintenance, so there may be some members in the chamber who have those responsibilities. However, what I thought was interesting was that such activities are generally considered to be more episodic, more often occurring on a weekly or monthly basis rather than daily.

It was interesting that Professor Pocock concludes—again, relying on the ABS data that is available—that women undertake 'almost twice as much domestic and caring work as men', and 'this imbalance has barely changed since 1992 and 1997 and the segmentation of unpaid tasks remain highly gendered'. Most of the women in this chamber, I am sure, would not even be slightly surprised by that.

The other thing to note is that there has also been a growing trend for both partners, in couple families with dependants, to be in the labour force, hence the incidence of women being injured at work is very severe. The figures indicate that women incur approximately 25 per cent of claims, 34 per cent of income maintenance claims, 35 to 36 per cent of claims involving rehabilitation, and 45 to 49 per cent of home assistance services, although these services have been declining over time, and that is mainly—I see from the report—because people do not know that they are available. That is a very sad figure. As I said earlier, when we make up 41 per cent of the paid workforce these are worrying statistics, indeed. In the spirit of International Women's Day, it is important to remind ourselves where women are in the paid workforce, as well as the unpaid workforce.

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