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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-03-08 Daily Xml
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International Women's Day

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:40): I rise today to speak about International Women's Day (IWD). International Women's Day (or as it was originally called, International Working Women's Day) is marked each year on 8 March. It was first celebrated as a tribute to working women and it provided an opportunity to raise issues about pay and conditions, as well as women's rights more generally.

In honouring our women forebears, I pay tribute to union women who fought the earliest of fights for decent pay and conditions. Those women had a strong influence over the formation of this day and continue to play a pivotal role in our women's movement. IWD is important for many reasons. It is a time to reflect on past political, social, economic and cultural achievements and to consider how we can work together to achieve equality for women in all areas of life in our local communities and across the globe.

On IWD we reflect on how far we have come and focus on how far we still have to go. Over the past week alone we have seen a fiery response to the notion that perhaps the time for our Clipsal grid girls has passed. Yes, women absolutely have the right to choose what they wear, where they wear it and the sort of work they do, but let us not pretend that when an event has only male competitors and that women only get on the winner's podium to present trophies and kiss the place getters that this is in any way empowering or focused on promoting women in sport.

Our sports minister rightly remarked that perhaps young sporting hopefuls of both genders could get behind the wheel and replace scantily clad women historically found on the side of the track. I commend minister Bignell for his statements, for his support for women in sport and women sporting events like the Australian Women's Open and Tour Down Under, and I commend journalists Petra Starke and Ali Clarke for their comments over the weekend about this issue.

I cannot wait to see women behind the wheel at Clipsal—in fact, I would love to get behind the wheel of one of those cars myself—and I cannot wait to see more outrage about issues for women in sport like pay inequity and a lack of media coverage. Whenever we promote women and create role models—whether that be in sporting life, our parliaments, workplaces or anywhere else—we empower women.

On this IWD, we must recommit to ensuring that our community make up is reflected in the make up of our parliaments, in all leadership positions and in all other places so that girls and young women are able to aspire to and succeed at doing whatever they have their heart set on. I am very proud that last month the SA branch of our Labor Party historically resolved to ensure 50 per cent women's representation in our parliaments by 2025. A resolution that through its enactment will make a real difference to many women political aspirants, and our parliament and our community will be better for it.

However, it is hard to mark IWD without turning our minds to the many ongoing issues that we confront. More than one woman per week in Australia now dies at the hands of a partner or former partner and more than 1 billion women across the globe experience sexual and/or physical violence during their lifetime. As women working in female dominated industries continue to experience pay inequity, our Australian gender pay gap remains at about 18 per cent. Reproductive choice and sex work remain subject to criminal penalties in South Australia, and an estimated 31 million girls of primary school age around the world are prevented from attending school.

Yes, we have achieved much but we have much to do. This year the IWD theme is 'Planet 50-50 by 2030: step it up for gender equality' as a statement about the equal place women must take in all areas of society. Here in South Australia we can celebrate our government's new women's economic empowerment blueprint and the fact that we still have the largest IWD event in Australia—a breakfast for UN women hosted by Senator Penny Wong.

Over 2,400 women and men gathered to listen to the fabulous Fran Kelly last Friday to discuss the F word, feminism. She spoke passionately about the need for everyone who believes in women's equality to claim that title and that, with so much still to do, we must. She posed a question to us all: 'if you've only got a certain number of fighting hours in you, what are you going to use them for?' I look forward to using my fighting hours to achieve equality for all.

I look forward to celebrating International Women's Day at this evening's rally inspired by Peter Dutton's statement about a female journalist being a witch, as well as another adjective which would not be considered parliamentary language. I also very much look forward to honouring women in our southern community, in Reynell, at my annual International Women's Day dinner and community awards.

Happy International Women's Day to you all, and thank you to the many women and men in this house, and across our South Australian communities, who have done so much to advance women's rights over many years. I look forward to continuing the fight for equality with you all.

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