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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-12-09 Daily Xml
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Women on Boards and Committees

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:49): Thank you, Mr President. We can only hope. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Minister for the Status of Women about women on boards, particularly women on boards of peak sporting associations in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: South Australia has traditionally punched above its weight when it comes to participation, elite athletes, school and elite coaches, and administrators in relation to women in the sport of rowing in particular. We have had women on the Rowing SA board for many years, had a woman as head coach of the elite rowing program at the South Australian Sports Institute in the 1990s, have had multiple female coaches coaching crews to world championship medals and titles, and have had several women serve as chief executive officers of Rowing SA.

A South Australian public school girl crew won the first ever contested School Girls 1st VIII title at the rowing national titles in 1992, and girls began competing in the sport in the Head of the River in the 1970s in this state, including the inclusion of 1st VIIIs for girls in the late 1980s. Australia's first gold medal at the Olympics in women's rowing was achieved by the women's pair at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Half of that two-person crew was South Australian Kate Slatter.

Rowing has had more than 50 per cent participation of women and girls, so it seems concerning that there are not more women in board, administrative and coaching roles at present. The composition of the Rowing SA board has come to Dignity for Disability's attention in recent weeks. We understand that there are zero women on the board appointed several months ago for 2015-16. We also understand the newly appointed chief executive officer of Rowing SA is also male and that very few women are now coaching or directing school or club rowing programs in this state. My questions are:

1. Is the minister aware that there are zero women on the Rowing SA board for 2015-16, despite the fact that the sport has over 50 per cent female participation?

2. Will the minister undertake to speak to the Minister for Sport about this issue?

3. Is the minister concerned that the involvement of women and girls in sport might be compromised by the lack of women in positions of authority?

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) (14:52): I thank the honourable member for her most important question and, indeed, the representation of women in leadership positions in particular and on boards and committees generally is something that this government has focused a great deal of attention on.

What we have sought to do is to be a model employer. Obviously there is little we can do about the board constitution of private organisations but what we have sought to do is to set ourselves a target of ensuring that there is 50 per cent representation of women on all government boards and committees. We have also set ourselves a target for there being 50 per cent of chairs who are women on government boards and committees.

As I said, we have sought to provide leadership by being a model employer. I know that the Liberal opposition do not believe in targets but I am of the strong view that they are the only reason that this government has been able to achieve 48 per cent of our positions now being women on government boards and committees—48 per cent, and it is still not 50 per cent, granted. Nevertheless we have made significant achievements and I think we are still the leading jurisdiction. We have the highest level of representation on government boards and committees around the nation, so we are very proud of that. There is just no way we would have achieved that if it were not for the fact that we were brave and bold enough to set ourselves a target and to be publicly accountable for that target. As I said, as of 1 December, women held 48 per cent of the positions on state boards and committees.

We are not doing as well with chair positions. We are sitting at 37.64 per cent. Nevertheless, I think we are still leading the nation there as well, and of course we continue to try to reach our target of 50 per cent. One of the ways that we have been able to do that is through our Premier's Women's Directory. That is a database of women and their capabilities that can be easily searched, so if someone is looking for a particular skill set or particular experience they can easily do a search and find a suitable woman.

Sport is another challenging area where we are not so much under-represented—netball, of course, which is the most highly participated in sport in the nation, has a strong representation of women—but in terms of things like the status, pay and prizes, there are huge discrepancies between what can be achieved by male sportspeople and that by women. Part of that is the fact that these are mainly private sporting organisations run by their own boards and committees, and they are largely dominated by men as well, who continue to feed a culture that provides barriers to women being able to achieve equity.

In response to that problem of the way that women are under-represented in the higher levels of sport, the Office for Women has obviously developed quite a strong relationship with the Office for Recreation and Sport, and we continue to work with them on increasing the recognition of women in sport and their participation in sports leadership. The Office for Recreation and Sport has always set diversity and inclusion as one of its key areas, and it continues to include increased participation and recognition of women in sport as a priority. In May 2015, ORS released 'Words into Sporting Action. A Practical Guide to Achieve Gender Equity in Your Sport and Recreational Organisation and Improve Performance'. That is a guide to help organisations to achieve better representation of women and men, particularly women, in senior leadership roles.

The South Australian government has established a Women in Sport Task Force. That is led by parliamentary secretary to the Premier, Katrine Hildyard MP, and the Office for Women is obviously a member of that task force. The task force includes representatives from ORS, as well as high profile sportswomen, sporting body representatives and people like event managers. The group aims to increase the number of spectators both at venues and on television for women in sport. It has other aims, but that is one of the things it seeks to achieve.

The report released by the Australian Sports Commission showed that women's sports make up just 7 per cent of television and print sports coverage. Although the vast majority of stories—85 per cent—were positive, 58 per cent of people surveyed felt that there was not enough coverage dedicated to women's sport. The task force also aims to close the pay gap between male and female athletes and attract more sporting events to Adelaide. I think it was the Hon. Tammy Franks who brought in the issue of the pay gap between sporting athletes, and I have spoken on that in this place before.

There is a range of things that the task force is doing, but in terms of women in sports governance, we are in the third year in a row now of funding 25 board training scholarships for South Australian women to attend introductory level governance training delivered by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). The total so far is 75 scholarships. Preference for the scholarships is given to women of disadvantage who might not readily have access to this sort of training.

In addition, this year, preference was also given to women on the board of a sporting organisation in recognition of some of the problems in that particular area. This is in recognition of the national focus on increasing women's participation in sports governance. As with previous years, the Office for Women has managed the applications, and the feedback has been fantastic. Women still stop me in a range of public places and say, 'I was one of the women who was a recipient. I can't tell you how wonderful the experience was and the change that it has made to my life and how it has really helped empower me.' So, it is a very worthwhile training experience.

Also in April 2015, the Office for Women supported the Office for Recreation and Sport's Business Meets Sports network event. That was held at the Adelaide Town Hall, where businesswomen interested in sport met with sporting organisations looking to increase the participation of women on their boards and committees. Approximately 50 members of the Premier's Women's Directory, who have been identified as having experience or an interest in sports and sports governance, were also invited to the event.

In May, the From Diversity Comes Innovation and Growth conference was held and attendees heard an inspiring keynote address from journalist Rebecca Wilson. Bernard Salt drew a picture of what South Australia's sport and recreational landscape might look like in the next decade. They are just a couple of the initiatives we have to help improve the representation of women in sport and the recognition of female athletes.

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