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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-05 Daily Xml
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International Women's Day

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:29): Sunday 8 March is International Women's Day. It is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. The theme this year is 'I am Generation Equality: Realising Women's Rights'. In Australia, we can be relatively pleased with our efforts over the years to achieve equality for women, often against remarkable odds.

South Australia can in fact be particularly proud of its part as a world leader in women's rights. While suffragette protests for the right to vote raged in London, Philadelphia and Boston in the later years of the 19th century, South Australia went a step further in granting women's suffrage. The Adult Suffrage Bill was passed on 18 December 1894, awarding South Australian women the right to vote in general elections and to stand for parliament, the first time anywhere in Australia.

Indeed, we have come a long way since the passing of this bill, and we celebrated the 125th anniversary of that in this place in 2019. Women like Catherine Helen Spence, Mary Lee and Elizabeth Webb Nicholls paved the way here in South Australia as leaders of the suffrage campaign. Women like Adelaide-born Muriel Matters, who campaigned by flying over London in an airship inscribed 'Votes for Women' and throwing handbills over parliament, played a significant role abroad.

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to serve both in the Australian federal parliament as a senator and in the state parliament in South Australia as the member for Torrens. Today, in our South Australian parliament, 19 out of 69 seats are held by women. Women hold 10 out of 27 of the Labor seats, while only six out of 34 Liberal seats are held by women. I know where I would rather stand.

Ms Bedford: And 33 per cent of the crossbench.

Ms WORTLEY: What was it?

Mr Bell: 33 per cent.

Ms WORTLEY: And 33 per cent on the crossbench. The efforts of women to achieve equality, of course, go well beyond the walls of our parliament. Many women who have strived for a career have historically been forced to balance that career with the needs of family, until recent times, often for years without any consideration of the difficulties presented. International Women's Day recognises and honours not just the achievements of the ground breakers, the women whose names we know and whom we admire, but all women. There are many more women who do not make the headlines and have not had the chance to move us with inspirational speeches or actions.

These are the women who have had to fight hard for everything they have achieved in what until very recently have often been unfair workplaces: women who still have to juggle a career with raising a family, who drop the kids at school before heading to work and who often have to take work home so they can pick them up; women who, after a full working day, sit with their children overseeing their homework; and women who take their children to sports practice, who are there week in and week out on the sidelines, cheering them on and taking up voluntary positions of team manager, coach, secretary of the club, event organiser or on the fundraising committee.

They are there staffing the canteen, cooking on the barbecue stall and taking team uniforms home to wash. These are the many women I see at my local sports and community clubs in my electorate of Torrens taking up these roles at Gaza Football Club, MetroStars and Adelaide City FC, the North Adelaide Rockets Basketball Club, Windsor calisthenics, NECAP, the Neighbourhood Watch meetings and Hillcrest Scouts, and many more at our local schools on governing councils or volunteering for school excursions.

International Women's Day also recognises women like my mother, Janice, and my mother-in-law, Pamela, who each raised six children, walked the path and faced the struggles that women of their generation faced when equality issues were not enshrined in law. It acknowledges these women and others who have in their own way each made a valuable contribution towards achieving equality and fairness, whether through standing up for their rights in the workplace, at home or in learning institutions.

It acknowledges those who have taught or are teaching and raising their children to respect and value contributions equally, regardless of gender, and that some things are worth standing up for. It acknowledges the efforts of those women who fought the fight, helping to make Australia a better, fairer place for all. The emerging global consensus is that, despite progress, real change has been agonisingly slow for the majority of women and girls in the world. It is disappointing that today not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and culture, and International Women's Day is a day that we can focus, too, on these. This year we celebrate achievements of women who have overcome the barriers while we work towards addressing inequalities that continue to exist today.

The SPEAKER: I do have discretion to extend these contributions if I need to, and I will remember past examples.

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