International Day of the Girl Child

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:21): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister for the Status of Women a question about the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA: Mission Australia's annual review survey reflects body image as one of the top three concerns for young Australians aged 11 to 24, and in South Australia last year 45.4 per cent of women were either 'extremely concerned' or 'very concerned' about body image, compared with 13.2 per cent of men. Will you inform the chamber about the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child, and what the government is doing locally to empower young girls?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:22): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. On Wednesday 8 October I had the pleasure of attending the International Day of the Girl Child, taking the lead breakfast. This event, organised by Plan Australia, focused on discussing the challenges preventing girls from achieving their full potential and what we need to do to give girls the opportunity to lead, because we know that when you educate and empower girls all of our community can benefit.

It was really inspiring to hear from the keynote speaker, Natasha Stott-Despoja. She discussed how women can become leaders around the world, as well as her own political accomplishments. Natasha is currently Australia's Ambassador for Women and Girls and the founding chairperson of Our Watch, a foundation dedicated to preventing violence against women and their children.

A panellist discussion also involved Esther Simbi and Marwa Shabbar. Esther Simbi, who fled Sudan as a refugee 19 years ago, has a strong belief that access to education was the thing that gave her the opportunity to establish her career as a social worker. Her experiences, including as a sufferer of post-polio syndrome, led her to run in the last state election as a candidate for Dignity for Disability. Marwa Shabbar, an asylum seeker who arrived in Australia in 2001, is a practising solicitor at Women's Legal Service SA. She is also a board member of the Migrant Resource Centre of South Australia, the president of the Multicultural Youth Link of South Australia, and a member of the Minister's Youth Council. The thoughts and views of both of these women on the challenges facing young girls and how they became empowered to succeed were incredibly enlightening and very dynamic and very moving as well.

The United Nations International Day of the Girl Child has coincided with a call for volunteers as part of an initiative by this government aimed at improving the body image and confidence of young women. The state government is inviting teenage girls to join creative workshops aimed at exploring ways to boost self-esteem and develop positive body image. Their ideas will culminate in an online campaign to be launched next April.

Research tells us that today's culture reflects an ideal of beauty that is actually quite harmful to the physical and psychological wellbeing of many people, but particularly young girls. The body image campaign is designed to help empower young South Australian girls and remind them that things like character, skills and personality attributes are far more important than their weight and shape. This government wants to ensure that we have a generation of young girls who look beyond stereotypes and find confidence within themselves and then share this self-assurance with their friends and peers.

While girls aged 13 to 18 will help develop the campaign, the target audience will be even younger. Messages received when a girl is between seven and 12 are, I understand, also very important to the development of a very positive body image as she becomes a teenager. Utilising teenage girls will help us to create relevant messages, because we will be asking the older girls to help create messages that they wish they had heard when they were younger. We will then ask parents and older sisters to share this campaign with younger girls.

Team brainstorming workshops will be held during January school holidays and could result in a mobile application—for instance, a music video or a slideshow of objects precious to young girls. The final pieces will be released online over six weeks starting 6 May 2015, International No Diet Day. This is designed to be an organic, creative process with the girls deciding the best methods to share their message.

We are excited to see what comes out of the workshop process, and the Office for Women, which is leading the campaign, is also seeking older mentors with digital media skills to help turn the girls' input into online content. To register interest as a volunteer or mentor, visit the Women's Information Service website, which is wis.sa.gov.au.