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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-03 Daily Xml
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STATUS OF WOMEN

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about the status of women.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Recently the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party took control of the Colac Hotel at Port Adelaide, which I am informed provides weekly strip shows. Reportedly, the Australian Labor Party will be a landlord, and the State Secretary, Michael Brown, has indicated that the party will review the arrangements at the hotel. On 30 April a report in The Advertiser, referring to a statement received from minister Gago, stated:

She would prefer that there was no demand for these types of services. However, this activity is legal and adult women can make their own choices.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Does she consider that strip shows support the ongoing enhancement of the status of women?

2. Does she consider, as her statement implies, that the customers seeking services and the women providing sex-based services are the responsible parties in these relationships and that the business which brings the customer and the woman together bears no responsibility?

3. Does she concede that, until the Labor Party aligns its actions with its words on the status of women, the people of South Australia have every right to believe the actions and regard the words as hypocritical?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for enabling me this opportunity to talk about these things publicly, because I think it is most important that we do engage in a public debate around these most important albeit quite sensitive issues. I enjoy the opportunity to do this.

As the honourable member quite rightly points out, the ALP is the landlord of this hotel. It does not manage the business of the hotel or have any input into that: it is merely the landlord of the property. We know that erotic dancing of this type is in fact a legal activity, although many people in this chamber might not like that. Lots of people might be offended by that, but it is a legal, legitimate activity. I would most dearly enjoy a world—and I am sure that many members here would share this view with me—where there was no such demand for this type of activity and that this activity did not necessarily occur.

However, that is not the world in which we live. It is a legal activity. Often we are looking at women who are supporting young families; we are often looking at women who are students and they use this income to assist them through their studies. Whatever the reason, that is a matter for their own conscience and their own personal choice and decision. It is not my job, as Minister for the Status of Women, to morally judge whether or not these decisions are necessarily good or bad. My obligation is to ensure that the laws are upheld, particularly the legislation for which I am responsible.

In relation to women and the potential for exploitation to which this issue relates, my job as a Labor woman is to ensure that they do have choices; that these women and other women have a choice about the jobs that are available to them and the careers they might want to pursue so that they have a range of options that might be available to them. My job as a Labor woman and as the Minister for the Status of Women is to ensure the sorts of training programs that encourage women to stay at school; and particularly in relation to teenage pregnancy, we encourage those women to return to school and we support them at school.

The issue that is important to me is to ensure that women do have a range of options and that they do have a choice in the sorts of decision they make and the sorts of occupations they pursue.

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