Wednesday, 8 March 2023

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Equality) (09:58): Today is International Women’s Day, with a theme of embracing equity. A hundred years ago this Parliament allowed women to stand for the very first time, and today on the government benches we have a majority of women in elected positions. Our cabinet is more than half women. There is a long way to go in making sure, however, that we embrace equity and that we lean into difficult conversations around where and how inequity arises. This is particularly manifest in the intersectionality that is experienced by women throughout their lives. Women with disabilities, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women who live in rural and regional areas, neurodivergent women and older women: these groups are statistically more likely to experience poverty and homelessness, statistically more likely to sustain the impacts of violence from an intimate partner, statistically less likely to participate in continuous paid employment and statistically less likely to have healthy balances in retirement income. These groups deserve our attention. These groups deserve our focus as we embrace equity this International Women’s Day.