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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-18 Daily Xml
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International Women's Day

Ms MICHAELS (Enfield) (15:44): Today, I rise to speak about International Women's Day, which was last Monday 8 March. I want to thank my Labor colleagues, particularly the member for Reynell, for continuing to shine the light on the ongoing fight for gender equality. I was proud to walk alongside her and the Labor team on Monday at the March 4 Justice. It was an extraordinary event. It was so uplifting at the same time that it was so genuinely sad that we needed it for the reasons that we did.

It is disappointing to say that in 2021 cultural and structural barriers still remain that continue to prevent women's equal participation and representation in community. It is important to stress that this is not just an issue for women and for girls. We know that when we empower women and girls we empower the whole society and the whole society benefits. There is a big job ahead of us, but there is a lot to celebrate. There are many individuals and organisations that do tremendous work to advance the status of women and girls in our society and I want to acknowledge them today.

Earlier this year, we saw four amazing women take out top honours at the Australia Day Awards. This included the incredible Grace Tame, a sexual assault survivor and advocate, who was named Australian of the Year; Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann, who was awarded Senior Australian the Year for her work in bridging the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal culture; and local hero and migrant advocate, Rosemary Kariuki.

Of course, Young South Australian of the Year for 2021 was South Australia's Isobel Marshall. Isobel and her friend Eloise Hall, who I had the chance to meet a couple of weeks ago, are striving every day to eliminate period poverty, both here and abroad, with their social enterprise TABOO and they are doing amazing work.

It is fitting then that the theme for International Women's Day this year is Women in Leadership. It is critical to achieving gender equality and has become even more imperative as a result of the impacts of COVID, where women are experiencing increased domestic violence, care duties, unemployment and poverty.

In South Australia, we have seen that in the last year 800 jobs were created for men, while an astonishing 13,400 jobs were lost for women—13,400 jobs lost for women. I could not believe it when I read that statistic. Sadly, today we have just seen the new job numbers and things are getting worse for South Australia. It is unfortunate that the Marshall Liberal government is doing nothing to help our economy and in particular South Australian women who are facing unemployment.

We have often heard, 'You can't be what you can't see,' and we absolutely need to see more women represented at the highest levels of public life. We need more women in leadership positions in the corporate world, in the sporting world and even in this place. Last August, I was extremely proud to join the Labor shadow cabinet and it signalled an historic fifty-fifty gender balance for Labor's frontbench, which I am very proud of.

Today, I sit alongside six incredibly talented women who bring a wealth of experience to our team: the member for Port Adelaide, our deputy leader; the member for Ramsay; the member for Hurtle Vale; the Hon. Clare Scriven and the Hon. Emily Bourke in the other place; and of course our shadow minister for women, the member for Reynell. The late Ruth Ginsburg said, 'Women belong in all places where decisions are made,' yet the latest figures from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency are still very sobering.

Women make up half of the private sector workforce in Australia, but at the top levels only 28 per cent are directors, 18 per cent are CEOs and 14 per cent are board chairs. I refer again to the member for Reynell's calls on all members to commit to doing whatever they can to improve leadership opportunities for girls and women. As an important step, we call on the government to reinstate the Premier's Women's Directory, which provided an important avenue for South Australian women to access board opportunities.

Before my time expires, I briefly want to touch on the horrifying fact that women over 55 are the fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness in Australia today. I want to thank organisations, such as Catherine House, which do amazing work trying to support these women, who through no fault of their own face such tragedy late in life.

It is well proven that women earn less over their lifetime and accrue less superannuation, compounded further by the fact they are more likely to be single and live alone in older years and they can be expected to live longer. It is a frightening scenario and one that we need to seriously address. There are entrenched systematic failings that are letting these women down and we must commit to tackling these issues. A common theme for this year's International Women's Day is 'Enough is enough' and I call on this place to do better.

Time expired.

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