4j AUSrRALIAPRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER TO THE
BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN/ ADVANCE AUSTRALIA AWARDSOUTHERN
CROSS HOTEL, MELBOURNE
OCTOBER 1985
Thank you for your introduction, Bev.
Mr and Mrs Spencer, Miss Michel, our special guest, US
Astronaut Dr Shannon Lucid, BPW members and guests.
It is a great pleasure for me to be here tonight to
Announce the winners of the Business and Professional
Women/ Advance Australia'Award for 1985.
In making the award, the sponsors adopted as their
criteria the Affirmative Action principles outlined by
the Government last year when we established the
Affirmative Action Pilot Program and provided guidance
for employers on how best to plan systematically to
improve employment opportunities for women.
It is particularly gratifying to see the Government's
approach complemented by this important award.
I have been delighted at the co-operation the Government
has received from private sector and higher education
employers and from unions in putting to the practical
test the Government's Affirmative Action policies andprinciples.
Our 12-month Pilot Program, which concluded in July,
demonstrated that it is possible, and indeed beneficial
to both employer and employee, for our approach to
improving woimen's job opportun-, ities to be adopted.
Indeed, the private sector pa~ rticipants in the Pilot
Program have described it as ma unique and innovative
step".
Earlier this week,, I ' announced the Government's
intention to legislate for Affirmative Action for women
in higher education employment and in those companies
employing more than 100 persons. Let me detail the main
feature of the legislation.
The Government will introduce legislation into Federal
Parliamecnt in the Autumn Session in 1986. That
legislation will require emnployers to report annua~ lly to
the Governmenc on their progress in developing an 8-step
Affirmative Action Program.
We shall be proclaiming our legislation in stages. it
is my strong view that this will enable the legislation
to be implemented in a planned and non-disruptive
fashion. It will enable a new Agency to be created
within the Employment anli Industrial Relations portfolio
to administer the Act to establish its procedures,
prepare the resources necessary to assist companies and
institutions and have adequate time to develop cooperative
relations with those organisations affected by
the legislation.
All those covered by the new Act will have to submit a
short report which will be available to the public,
providing general employment data by sex and some
general comments on the overall progress of their
program. In addition, a longer and-confidential report setting
out in more detail how the employer is progressing with
the implementation of the 8-step program will be
required.
The last thing that I and the Government wants to see is
our principal objective of improving women's job
opportunities becoming subsumed by excessively
bureaucratic procedures or administrative difficulties
caused by too large a number of organisations being
required to comply simultaneously.
What we propose instead is that that part of the
legislation cov ering higher education come intooperation
immediately the legislation is passed,
expected to be around August 1986. That part of the
legislation covering the private sector will be
operational six months later, around February 1987.
By February 1988, 262 companies employing more than
1,000 people would submit their first reports. By
February 1989 317 companies with between 500 and 999
employees would begin compliance and by February 1990
those 2890 companies with between 100 and 499 employees
woul. d hav~ e b2' 7Gr1 th'_ ir 2r-ICC.
It is my expectation that most large Australian
companies will adopt a very responsible attitude towards
their present and potential women employees and will not
wait until they are bound by the letter of the law to
start developing affirmative action strategies for
improving women's job prospects.
In this connexion, I am very pleased that the Business
Council of Australiia and the Confed. eration of. Australian
industry have decided to establish a Council for Equal
Employment Opportunity to encourage companies to begin
immediately to introduce affirmative action.
I see that self-regulatory proposal as being totally
compatible with the Government's legislative approach.
I note that the proposed Council is expected to have a
life span in otber words it will go out of
existence by the time that all Australian companies
employing more than 100 people are covered by our
legi slat ion.
The Government will co-operate and support business'
self-regulatory approach because we want the important
question of developing new employment opportunities for
women to be adopted with enthusiasm and creativity by
companies. Importantly, I am pleased to announce that the
Government's legislation will be supplemented by a
number of other measures which we believe will support
the development of equal opportunity for women.
We plan to act in three areas: education, child care
and legislative restrictions to wo~ ncn s employment.
Thlie Government accepts its responsibilities for ensuring
that our education and training systems are providing
maximum opportunities for young women to acquire a wide
range of qualifications and skills to enhance their job
prospects. Recently we announced the establishment of
the Australian Traineeships System a program to
enhance the training and work experience of 16 and 17.
year olds.
We are also currently developing a national policy on
the education of girls. This will be finalised by the
end of the year and will set goals and identify
priorities for the achievement of equality in
educational outcomes for girls.
We are also aware that the numbers of women undertaking
engineering courses is still very, very small and that
Pilot Program employers expressed difficulty in
recrui ting engineers. Accordi nqil/ Senator Si. usan Ryan,
has develo;-? d a proposalI fo--a . a: og Or iada
increasing the numbcrs of women enyjintcering yraduatcs.
4
This pilot will be based in Melbourne and will link
educational institutions providing engineering courses
to potential employers of engineers and to schools.
Through the pilot program, the Commonwealth will assist
schools and tertiary institutions to present engineering
as a realistic career option for young women and to make
it more accessible for them. The project will seek to
involve companies which employ engineer-, in orient,&' Irl
and work experience ac~~ iviLies.
The Government recognises that without access to child
caref, many women's job opportunities are restricted.
Since we came to Office the Government has more than
doubled spending on child care under the Children's
Services Program and has added 20,000 places to those
existing when we assumed Office. In the recent Budget
we confirmed the Government's intention to proceed with
the establishment of an additional 20,000 places over
the next three years. In other words, in just 5 years
we will have more than doubled the supply of child care
places throughout Australia. This exemplifies my
Government's continuing commitment to taking measures to
improve the Status of Women.
A number of companies participating in the Pilot Program
expressed interest in providing work-based child care
facilities for their employees. However, they also
conveyed to the Government their extraordinary
frustration at the mire of regulations at all levels of
Government which they had to contend with in order to
even investigate the provision of such facilities.
It is consistent with my Government's interest in
deregulating where appropriate to examine some of the
regulations governing the location of child care centres
to see whether unnecessary and archaic restrictions
could be removed. To this end, I have decided to
approach the States to ask them to remove existing
licensing requirements and regulations restricting child
care facilities to ground floor locations. This will
K not be at the expense of the quality of child care.
After all some, children's hospitals are multi-storey and
children live in high rise apartments. In addition to
attempting to facilitate employers wanting to use their
own premises to provide child care my Government is
prepared to offer a range of tax deductions and
depreciation provisions to employers who make child care
available. We have recently announced that this will
not be treated as fringe benefits for taxation purposes.
Finally, perhaps the most consistent complaint of
employers during the Pilot Program was the existence of
a range of legislative, r1~ tryor
on w'.,' ren's
ilJCabl. 0 Lo womnen Ldncv ai Lce~ ic-U1t.
Perhaps the most contentious of these restrictions are
the State laws prohibiting women from lifting more than
16 kilograms in weight.
It is our intention to convene a special conference of
unions, employers, State Governments and other
interested parties to examine and make recommendations
in respect of legislative, regulatory or award
restrictions. I hope that as a reSuIt Of thiS
Conferernce we can reach agreement on how to ensure that
no law in this country stands in the way of women doing
whatever job for which they are qualified.
In my view, many employers are already acting in a
responsible and enlightened fashion and tonight's award
is timely recognition of this.
I am now very happy to announce the winners of the 1985
BPW Advance Australia Award.
it has been decided to make two awards this year, one to
an organisation and one to an outstanding individual.
Each award recognises a unique contribution made by the
winners to encouraging the employment of women in areas
where in the past they would not have been employed.
The Organisation Winner of the 1985 Award is the Greater
Newcastle Building Society.
The Individual Winner is the Chairman and Chief
Executive of Esso Australia Limited, Mr J. F. Kirk.
The Greater Newcastle Building Society has women at all
three levels of its management. Its Chairman is
Professor Beryl Nashar and it is the only major
corporation in Australia with a woman as Chairman.
At the middle level, one of its two Regional Managers is
a woman. And at the lower level of management women
manage a significant number of the Building Society's
Branches. In Newcastle itself there are 13 women
managers of 24* Branches. I am advised that the present
ratio of men to women throughout the industry is 2 to 1.
The Greater Newcastle Building Society has gone against
the trend and has recognised the talents and skills of
women. I think it is particularly significant that
Australia ' s rapidly expanding finance sector should be a
first winner of this award.
Mr Jim Kirk, the winner of the Individual Award is well
known for his pioneering contribution in introducing
Affirmative Action principles to Esso Australia at a
wh1)-i-t re .* J