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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-15 Daily Xml
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STATE STRATEGIC PLAN

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about South Australia's Strategic Plan.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: As members would be aware, South Australia's Strategic Plan outlines targets that contribute to the wellbeing of South Australians. It is an important blueprint outlining the state's priorities and goals. Can the minister tell the chamber more about the new women's target?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (14:56): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. Mr President, as you would know, last week saw the release of South Australia's updated Strategic Plan. As the Minister for the Status of Women, I would like to mention the involvement of the Premier's Council for Women in the extensive consultation that was done as part of this debate.

As one of the government's key advisory bodies, the Premier's Council for Women has been actively involved in the review of South Australia's Strategic Plan and has membership on the Strategic Plan Audit Committee and Community Engagement Board. The council contributed actively to the plan's review process by hosting consultation sessions with women across South Australia to listen to and find out what issues are important to them. I am very pleased to advise that the Premier's Council for Women consulted with over 250 women at 10 different sessions across South Australia in places like Naracoorte, Tailem Bend, Port Augusta, etc.

There were also specific consultations involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, young women, older women—a wide range of different women—and I attended one of these consultation sessions to listen to women's aspirations for myself. As well as these consultations, there were government community consultations. The engagement board undertook a community engagement process, consulting with 9,200 people across South Australia, with a specific focus on regional areas.

The Community Engagement Board, taking into account all the public consultations and feedback, then made recommendations to government on revisions to the plan and, in particular, what South Australians said was most important to them—namely, community and individual safety, access to affordable homes, and securing our water supplies—and 21 new targets have been developed to match these community goals and visions. I also wish to commend the PCW for its success in ensuring the data used to measure a number of SASP targets and progress towards achieving these targets.

Partially because of the PCW's advocacy, the new plan includes an appendix that outlines the disaggregation of all targets by gender, youth, older South Australians, Aboriginality, region and disability. The plan includes targets seeking to increase women's participation in formal leadership roles and places a strong emphasis on safety and social inclusion. The plan recognises the continued importance of ensuring gender equality and to make sure it is promoted in all areas of South Australian life. I am delighted that the primary women's targets have been retained. I will continue to be responsible for the number of women on government boards and committees and the number of women who chair these boards as well, increasing the number of women employed at executive levels in the public sector, and I look forward to continuing to encourage women to run for political positions.

The revised Strategic Plan also contains a new target which relates to violence against women. The Labor government has made women's safety a key priority area; the government's women's safety strategy was launched on International Women's Day back in 2005 and outlined the government's vision to address issues of violence, including rape and sexual assault, and domestic and Aboriginal family violence. That strategy has a broad focus from early intervention work focusing on preventing violence through to community education to raise awareness about the level of complexity of women's safety.

The strategy is currently being revised to bring it into line with the priorities articulated in the Council of Australian Governments' National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. The new target in the Strategic Plan seeks to reduce violence against women through to 2022, and as Minister for the Status of Women I am committed to progressing work both here and at a national level, which will improve the safety for women. I certainly applaud the new target as another example of Labor's ongoing commitment to women and those issues that impact on their lives.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Franks has a supplementary question.

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