PRIME MINISTER]
EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING MP
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN ( UNIFEM) BREAKFAST
HILTON HOTEL, BRISBANE 8.00 AM, MONDAY 9 MARCH 1992
Premier and Mrs Goss, Lord Mayor Soorley, my Minister
Assisting, Wendy Fatin, the President of UNIFEM Australia,
Beverley Perel and our esteemed guest, Ms Teresita Deles,
and friends.
It is a great pleasure to be here this morning to join in
your International Women's Day celebrations.
Sometimes the d enomination " women" obscures the reality of
women in society.
Because of the special needs of women many of them caused
or compounded by generations of prejudice and neglect it
is easy to get into the habit of thinking about women as a
minority group.
The truth is, of course, women are more than half of the
population and all government policy has an effect on their
lives, whether it is a specific measure or a broad one.
In Australia today it is not always easy to separate
policies for women from policies for society at large.
But you may be assured that this government is determined to
ensure that all government policies are assessed in regard
to their impact on women.
And we will go on making the specific changes necessary to
improve the conditions under which Australian women live and
to increase their opportunity and choice.
We will continue what has been a steady advance.
But before I talk about the government and Australian women,
I would like to make a few remarks about UNIFEM.
In recent years UNIFEM Australia has done much to heighten
public awareness of International Women's Day through
hosting a number of successful breakfasts like this.
UNIFEM is one of the major international organisations
devoted to improving the status of women. It plays a vital
role in the developing world, giving assistance to women to
exercise control over their lives and to participate more
fully in making decisions.
These occasions provide the opportunity to highlight the
critical role that women play in development.
It is also a chance to consider the changes that still have
to be made if women are to find equal places, and equal
access to them, in the world community.
The government takes an active interest in the improvement
of women's status in the world.
At the current meeting of the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, Australia will be calling for
gender equity issues to be incorporated into that body's
work. This meeting is a lead up to the major United Nations
Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de
Janeiro later this year.
As I'm sure many people here are aware, this conference is
of great importance in the world's quest for sustainable
development. Because women have a major part of the responsibility for
growing the world's food and play a significant part in the
management of the earth's resources, Australia's own aid
program supports UNIFEM's efforts to highlight the role of
women. The integration of women into development programs is both
more equitable and more effective.
It makes better use of the talent and energy residing in all
those women at the heart of economy and society.
For the sake of equity we have to acknowledge the
contribution of women both paid and unpaid. For the sake
of efficiency and commonsense, we must harness their skills,
their ambitions, their energy and their genius.
What is true for the world is true also for Australia.
And I can say with confidence and pride that in the nine
years so far of the Labor government, women have made great
advances and their contribution grows in proportion to
their advance.
I have a feeling, an inkling, that I am not widely regarded
as a feminist:.
This may be because I am regarded rightly as that most
conservative of creatures, a family man.
It may be because my ancestry is Irish.
It may be because ideological denominations have always
worried me a. great deal less than doing things.
My view has been that women will benefit most if the
material circumstances of Australian life are progressively
improved. That I think. is the starting point. As Treasurer I took the
view that if I succeeded in expanding the economy, making it
more robust and secure then I was expanding opportunity,
expanding thme government's ability to undertake programs of
reform and build essential services, increasing employment
and making it possible for people to plan their lives with
confidence. In doing these things, I believe I was doing things of great
benefit to Australian women.
As Prime Minister I continue to take that view, but with
more windows on to it.
As Prime Minister I would like to see less of the nuts and
bolts and more of the world outside.
I incline towards inclusion. I want to lower the
drawbridge. I think we should be looking for ways to increase the
influence of women in national policy and social development
in the culture of Australia.
We will know we are making progress when on both sides we
hear voices which are less adversarial and ideological and
more authentically the voices of Australian women and men.
I think I will feel that we have succeeded when women are to
a greater extent partners in the development of Australia,
shaping much more of the policy for the country as a whole.
I have always thought that the crime in politics was not
thinking the wrong thought, but not doing enough.
Not making the changes which your times demanded.
I have a building block model of reform. I think that if you
put one block down you create the logic and the impetus for
another.. and another.
In time the public sees the shape of your vision becoming
concrete and they actually help you finish.
As I said, my big effort in politics has always been towards
improving the material conditions under which Australians
live.
At a time like this, in a recession, I know that might have
a hollow ring to it.
I can only say that it distresses me that there is so much
distress in Australia at present.
It distresses me all the more because in the l980s we
created jobs, we boosted business, we introduced many
measures which have improved the conditions of life for
Australians in substantial and enduring ways.
But bemoaning it won't solve it. Ideology won't solve it.
My big effort is still towards reform, improvement and
these days that means recovery. I do not know of any other
way. Recovery means jobs for women and men.
Of the 1.5 million jobs we created since the early eighties,
per cent have gone to women.
Women's wages in the same period increased to 84.5% of the
male average, which is very good by OECD standards.
We supported the women who went to work with the Women's
Employment Strategy.
We trebled the number of child care places available, and
250,000 funded places will be created by 1995-96.
In the past two years the number of families receiving fee
relief for long day care has increased by more than 200 per
cent and average, payments have increased by 60 per cent.
These initiatives which increased opportunities for women to
work, were matched by measures which increased the equity
for those who stayed at home to care for children.
Family Allowance was increased and indexed.
The Family Allowance Supplement was introduced for the low
paid and their dependents.
Supplementary payments were introduced for low income
workers mostly women.
I could list a great many other measures which have made
Australian policies in regard to women, in many cases, a
model for other countries.
We established the Child Support Agency, addressed the
poverty traps3 that sole parents face; introduced a
retirement incomes strategy which improves women's access to
superannuation while guaranteeing maintenance of the age
pension; we've trebled rent assistance; introduced the
National Women's Health Strategy; set up the Office of
Indigenous Women to work towards the elimination of
discrimination and disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander women; established the National Committee on
Violence Against Women; introduced a Sex Discrimination Act
and an Affirmative Action Act.
These specific initiatives have been no more or less
important than general measures we have taken to extend
opportunity, strengthen the social net and modernise our
economy and society.
When we doubled the school retention rate, women benefited
more than two out of every three girls now finish secondary
education. More than half of all higher education places are now taken
by women.
Medicare benefited and continues to benefit women.
And of course it would be a travesty if Australian women
felt excluded from our fundamental objective and the
landmark reformsi we have made to achieve it the effort to
build a strong, internationally competitive society for on
our success in this, our future and our children's future
depend. The jobs, the opportunities, the security, social justice,
the quality of our society depend on this.
So then do women depend on it. And it depends on women.
The Economic Statement, One Nation, we released on February
26 builds on our reforms more than that, it sets the scene
for recovery.
One Natio~ n is about strength through partnerships:
partnerships between government and business, the
Commonwealth and the States, employees and employers,
communities. It's a statement of inclusion the idea is to include
everyone in the productive processes, in education and
training, in the social safety net, in the ability to make
the most of and enjoy this country.
It is aimed at creating a greater sense of belonging, a
greater spirit of cooperation, a much greater degree of
social cohesion.
As it closes gaps between people it closes distances
with a national rail freight highway which makes the
country economically much more efficient and the
highways safer for cars
city ring roads which have a similar effect:
an electricity grid which, by combining our resources
and building in an element of competition, will make
electricity cheaper
by deregulating the airline industry which will make
travel cheaper.
The idea behind One Nation is to build Australia's strength
to build a recovery which will carry us well into the
future. The idea is to set common national goals and create a
stronger sense of national purpose.
It is to pull this vast and sometimes divided country
together. I would like to think that everyone in this room will read
the One Nati,= document.
In conjunction with the National Agenda for Women which lays
out the government's objectives through the next decade I
think it lays out real and achievable reforms, reforms which
wi1ll hP undertaken, which will benefit all Australians.
This year we will be reviewing our progress in the
implementation of the action plans of the National Agenda
and setting our goals for the rest of the decade.
One Nation will create 800,000 new jobs.
Areas of particular benefit to women include the Textile,
Clothing and. Footwear Industry which will receive
$ 51 million to help the industry adjust, become more
efficient an~ d sd create secure jobs in manufacturing.
The tourism industry, which employs a high proportion of
women, will benefit enormously from deregulation of the
airlines, the improvement to our roads and new depreciation
allowances on tourist related buildings.
One Nation also ' contains substantial new incentives to small
and medium business, many of which, of course, are owned and
run by women, and in which many women work.
Reforms to Australian workplaces which will make Australian
business and industry much more efficient will have also
have a profound effect on working women's lives.
Enterprise bargaining will make it possible to negotiate
flexible working-time arrangements and other improvements to
make workplaces more compatible with family life and
responsibilities. We have also established a Work and Family Unit in the
Department of Industrial Relations to explain to employers
the advantages of having family friendly practices in the
workplace.
Meanwhile the government will continue to guarantee that the
wages system is equitable and protects those with little or
no bargaining power.
The government emphatically does not believe in the
" survival of the fittest" among Australian workers.
The $ 720 million we have allocated to vocational training
will be a great benefit to women, particularly as this
massive funding increase goes hand in hand with the specific
direction in the National Agenda to improve training and
employment outcomes for women.
The One Nati. n statement increases assistance to families on
low and medium incomes.
It makes rental assistance immediately available to people
in need.
This is to name just a few of the measures One Nation
contains. The statement combines, I believe, a mix of the bold and
enduring nation-building projects Australia needs, and
measures which will help people through the hard times.
The point of One Nation is the point of my government get
the economy moving, get people back to work.
Do it the only way it can be done: do it by calling on all
of our strength our resources, our institutions, our
people. Do it in partnership. Build the partnerships.
At the start I said that it is increasingly difficu Lt to
conceive of women as a distinct social or economic category.
There is a long way to go before we reach the point when
discrimination has been eliminated, the extra difficulties
for women in the community, in the workplace, the home and
in business have vanished, and we don't so frequent~ y
include women among the disadvantaged.
But I think one can read in the signs evidence of social
progress. We're getting there, we've made more headway in the last
nine years thian we made in the previous hundred, and we' re
going to make a lot more in the next nine.
I am sufficiently proud of what has been achieved and
confident enough of what can and will be, to say that I can
help. I think we can build a very good society in Australia and
its key element will have to be the opportunities, the
chance to participate and have a voice, the options of work
and home, the security, and the centrality of women in this
one nation.
I must conclude by congratulating UNIFEM on the great work
it is doing.
I trust that my comments today were not taken to mean a lack
of interest in the condition of women in the developing
world. Far from it the government will continue to support UNIFEM
and remains committed to its objectives.
But today, I have taken the opportunity to tell Australian
women that, of all the partnerships we seek in the
One Natin Statement, none is more significant than that
between the women and men of Australia. Here, no less than
in the developing countries, Australia needs their skills
and energy and we' will only reach the goal of the good
society we want by continuing to extend their influence.
Thank you for having me.