PRIME MINISTER
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON. PJ. KEATING, MP
AUSI'RALIA'S SECOND REPORT TO THE UNITED NATIONS
COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
WOMEN ( CEDAW)
This morning I had great pleasure in formally presenting Australia's second
CEDAW Report to Her Excellency Mrs Mervat Tallawy, the chairperson of the
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
Present at the ceremony in the Prime Minister's sitting room were the Hon. Wendy
Fatin MP, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women; the Hon.
Justice Elizabeth Evatt, President, the Law Reform Commission and former member
and Chair of the CEDAW Committee; Quentin Bryce AO, Sex Discrimination
Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission; Kaye Loder,
chair, National Women's Consultative Council; and Helen L'Orange, First Assistant
Secretary, Office of the Status of Women.
Australia is obliged to report every four years to the United Nations as part of our
responsibilities as signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, a convention the government ratified within
months of taking office in 1983. By ratifying CEDAW we committed ourselves to
developing policies and programs to improve the status of women in Australia. Thie
Government quickly responded to this responsibility by using CEDAW as one of
the constitutional underpinnings for the Sex Discrimination Act which was passed
by the Parliament in 1984. Ratification of CEDAW also obliges us to report
periodically on our progress in improving the status of women, and the Report I
presented this morning is Australia's second such report. The Report was prepared
and coordinated by the Office of the Status of Women ( OSW) in my department,
with input from all departments of the Federal Government, the State governments
of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and
Tasmania, and the Governments of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital
Territory. Non-government organisations' views were also formally canvassed for
the first time. The National Women's Consultative Council ( NWCC) held a
consultation between key NGOs and members of the federal bureaucracy to explore
views on Australia's progress in implementing the Convention.
Australia's achievements in the course of nearly a decade of implementing the
CEDAW Convention have won us international acclaim. My government is very
proud that Australia is now considered a major player in international forums
concerned with status of women issues, and we are committed to continuing the
process of implementing the Convention and other measures to improve the status of
women. Australia's First Report, considered by the CEDAW Committee in 1988, was
commended for its scope and frankness. Our Second Report to CEDAW continues
this tradition of openness about what remains to be done to fully implement the
Convention. The period since our first Report has been one in which a number of
important achievements have occurred.
Those achievements include the following:
Establishment of 30,000 new child care places under the 1988-92 Child
Care Strategy
Child care fee relief increased and indexed
Fee relief for child care places extended to commercial centres
Child Support Agency established
National Agenda for Women launched
Sole parent rebate and dependent spouse rebate substantially boosted and
indexed All family payments for children ( Family Allowance, Family Allowance
Supplement, Child Disability Allowance, Mothers Guardian Allowance)
indexed to maintain real value
National Committee on Violence Against Women established
National Program for Early Detection of Breast Cancer established
Early Detection of Cervical Cancer Program established
Ratification of JiO Convention 156 on Workers with Family
Responsibilities
Work and Family Unit established in Department of Industrial Relations
Equal Pay Unit established in the Department of Industrial Relations
Introduction of the Jobs, Education and Training ( JET) program for sole
parents
Our Government was the first in the world to issue a comprehensive policy
document for raising the status of women when it released the National Agenda for
Women in 1988. Each year the annual implementation reports on the National
Agenda have provided a public measure of our progress, as have the annual reports
under the Australian Women's Employment Strategy and the National Policy for the
Education of Girls in Australian Schools. The second phase of the National Agenda
is presently being designed and a renewed document will be released later this year.
Similarly, Australia was among the first countries in the world to set in place a
mechanism to evaluate the impact of Federal Budget decisions on women. The
Women's Budget Statement has been tabled in Federal Parliament as a Budgetrelated
paper every year since 1984.
One of the most important elements of Australia's response to CEDAW has been the
establishment of a specialised bureaucratic machinery in Federal, State, and
Territory government departments to monitor, evaluate and advise on government
policies and programs as they affect women. OSW in my department is part of this
machinery.
Australia has also been in the forefront in the range of government-funded services
for women. Many are run by women, for women. For instance, Women's
Information and Referral Services operate in all metropolitan and some regional
centres as an access point to government services for women. A national network
of 313 services exists for women escaping domestic violence. Under our National
Women's Health Policy, a wide range of special early detection and preventative
health services are provided for women, including Alternative Birthing Services, the
Program for Early Detection of Breast Cancer and the Cervical Cancer Screening
Program. Labour market reform and the processes of award restructuring have improved
women's position in the paid workforce; the gender gap in wages has narrowed with
the ratio of women's to men's earnings having reached 84 per cent. By international
standards this figure is high, though the government remains committed to the goal
of equal pay.
Women's participation in the workforce continues to grow, especially that of
women with children. 61 per cent of Australian women with children aged 5-12
are in the workforce as are 45 per cent of all mothers of children aged 0-4, so the
government is especially proud of its achievement in ensuring the continued growth
in child-care places. When Labor came to office in 1983 there were 46,000
community-based child-care places; there are now more than 134,600 and I have
committed the governmnrt to providing 250,000 places by 1995. In just the past
two years the number of families receiving fee relief for long day care has increased
from 44,500 to 135,800 and the average weekly fee relief payments have increased
per cent from $ 22 to $ 35 per week. Sole parents participating in the Jobs,
Education and Training ( JET) Program have been major beneficiaries of the
expansion in child care. Participation of sole parents in the workforce has increased
from 36% in 1983 to 45% in 1992.
The government has placed particular emphasis on consolidating and improving
payments to families. We have indexed all family payments and, as of January
1993, all will be payable to the parent most responsible for the care of the children,
usually the mother.
The ratification in 1991 of the International Labour Organisation Convention 156 on
Workers with Family Responsibilities was another landmark for women. It
committed the Government to develop policies and programs to minimise the
pressures on people with jobs and families, and in particular address the double load
carried by working women with domestic responsibilities.
In the legal arena, the Sex Discrimination Act has been amended to improve and
extend coverage, and the effectiveness of the Affirmative Action ( Equal
Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986 has recently been reviewed
through a process of community consultations which revealed a high level of
acceptance by business and the community for these measures which aim to
increase women's job opportunities
The government recognises that to achieve our ultimate goal of full equality for
women all levels of government still have a long way to go but the presentation of
the CEDAW Report provides an opportunity to restate our commitment to that goal,
and to say we welcome the comment and advice of the highly respected CEDAW
Committee in its consideration of Australia's Second Report.
CANBERRA June 1992