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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-13 Daily Xml
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AUGUSTA ZADOW SCHOLARSHIPS

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Minister, will you advise the council about the important and impressive Augusta Zadow scholarship program?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for his very important question and acknowledge his many years of tireless work for the trade union movement in defence of the working people of this state. The South Australian government is a strong advocator for women's participation in the workforce, and ensuring they are safe at work is a key factor in this. For this reason, it gives me great pleasure to inform the house that applications for the next round of the Augusta Zadow Scholarships opened on 8 March 2012.

SafeWork SA funds two scholarships for research or projects aimed at improving the health and safety of South Australian women in the workplace. Each scholarship is up to the value of $10,000. The annual Augusta Zadow Scholarships were initiated in 2005 and are named in honour of Augusta Zadow. In 1895, Augusta Zadow became the first female Inspector of Factories in South Australia. She played a crucial role in securing better conditions for factory workers, particularly women and children. Many of the working conditions we now take for granted are due to the efforts of Augusta Zadow.

Previous recipients of these scholarships play an important role in identifying and exploring options to improve health and safety for women in the workforce. Manual handling, menopause, sexual harassment, aggressive clients and exposure to hazardous substances during pregnancy are some of the issues that have been and are being examined by researchers using funding from the Augusta Zadow Scholarships. All of these projects assist women in South Australia in a meaningful and tangible way.

In 2011, Kathryn McEwen from Kathryn McEwen Psychology at Work, in collaboration with the Child and Family Health Services, was awarded a $10,000 scholarship to undertake a research project to build resilience at an individual and collective level for staff. The project aims to find ways to help staff manage their everyday stress and to recover from some of the inevitable setbacks they face in their complex and demanding work.

Sharyn Gaskin, from the Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratory at the University of Adelaide, was also awarded a scholarship in 2011. Sharyn received $9,150 to undertake research to better understand the influence of cosmetics on the skin absorption of chemicals amongst female workers. The project will lead to better guidance on the health effects that wearing cosmetics may have on workers who handle chemicals such as cleaning agents. It will provide new knowledge addressing female susceptibility to chemicals in the workplace and the potential role of products worn on the skin.

These projects are examples of work undertaken by last year's scholarship recipients. I have no doubt that their efforts will make a huge difference to the health and safety of working women in South Australia. I encourage anyone with a proposal for occupational health and safety improvements undertaken by, or for the benefit of, women in South Australia to apply. Proposals must be submitted by 5pm on Monday 27 August 2012. Selection criteria and other details can be found on the SafeWork SA website.

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