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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-04 Daily Xml
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ANNA STEWART MEMORIAL PROGRAM

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about the Anna Stewart Memorial Program.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Anna Stewart Memorial Program commenced, as I understand it, in 1984 and is held annually by SA Unions to commemorate the achievements of Anna Stewart, a former journalist and union official, who worked tirelessly and passionately for women. Will the minister update the council on the Anna Stewart Memorial Program?

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) (15:03): I am very pleased to do this. Anna Stewart worked passionately and tirelessly towards pay equity and to improve working conditions for women. She died in 1983 at the age of just 35. The Anna Stewart Memorial Program continues to honour her in the best way possible.

From 1974 until 1983 Anna Stewart, a former journalist and Victorian trade union official, worked to involve women directly in deciding on principles and priorities to be put before unions and government in order to achieve real quality of status and opportunity for women. Anna entered the industrial arena at a time when women workers made up just a third of the paid workforce, and the few industries in which women were employed were almost invariably in the unskilled or semi-skilled areas. Women were poorly paid, lacked job security and job satisfaction and rarely had access to promotional opportunities. Anna developed a radical re-evaluation of the rights of female labour within the economy, which led to a fundamental reappraisal of these issues throughout the labour movement. Both personally and industrially, Anna made demands upon the social system and forced the work environment to accommodate the rights and needs of working women.

At its congress in 1977, the ACTU adopted the Working Women's Charter and set up the first women's committee of the ACTU. Anna was one of the founding members of that committee and one of the four women chosen to be its nucleus. She remained an active force in that committee working for implementation of that charter. Only a couple of weeks before her death, she successfully argued the future program of the ACTU's women's committee before the ACTU Executive.

The influence of Anna's work remains immeasurable. The Anna Stewart Memorial Project is held annually and is one way to ensure that her efforts were not in vain. The program aims to increase women's active union involvement and to increase the union movement's acceptance and understanding of women members and the issues that are of concern to women. It is designed specifically to give women an insight into how unions operate and how women can be more active in their union and pursue issues of their interest and concern.

As part of that program, a group of women union members are placed in different unions for two weeks' work experience. During this time, participants see how the union is organised and its relationship to other unions. Participants become involved in issues which are important to members in union offices and meetings with members, officials other than unions and SA Unions. The Anna Stewart program commenced in Victoria (as the honourable member said) in 1984, and SA Unions (formerly the UTLC) held its first program in 1985. While women's share of union membership is rising, their participation in union affairs is lagging and participation levels reflect the major share of child rearing and domestic work that many women undertake.

As Minister for the Status of Women, I am pleased to host the Anna Stewart Memorial Project Lunch at Parliament House tomorrow (Friday). It is particularly of interest to me, given that I was an Anna Stewart Memorial participant. I was trying to remember the date that I participated: I think it was around 22 years ago. I think I was in the second or third group that passed through the program. It certainly changed my life. Being a fairly outspoken person in the workplace, it helped me understand the role of unions and the importance of speaking out. It also helped me understand industrial structures and processes. That certainly empowered me in being able to pursue concerns that I and my colleagues had. It also led me to my interest in and now membership of parliament. It was certainly a pivotal experience in my life and I am very pleased to be able to host this event tomorrow.

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