Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Easter time is a month away. One of the great things about living in my part of the world is how beautiful it is. The electorate of Mallee, in the Wimmera, is a third of the state of Victoria and has some real highlights. What I want to say to people out there is that, amongst your busy lives, the Easter weekend is a wonderful thing to start to plan for, and my part of the world is a wonderful place to go to. Of course, we've got the Grampians, one of the great national parks. We're in the process of building the Grampians Peaks Trail with $10 million of federal money. It's a chance to get out, walk, think, breathe, see the koalas in the trees and see the kangaroos jumping around. Take your children and go to the Grampians zoo; it's quite a fantastic place.

We've got the Silo Art Trail: you can drive around now and see giant silos that have got fantastic murals painted on them, and it becomes quite a wonderful thing to drive around regional Victoria. We have the Murray River, this great icon that is beautiful and healthy. If you go to Swan Hill, you can go to the Pioneer Settlement and see the Heartbeat of the Murray laser show where they fire jets of water up in the air and lasers are fired on to them to create a giant screen. Also at the Pioneer Settlement you can learn about those who have gone before us.

You can go to Mildura, where the food is amazing. One of the great things about my part of the world is all the food that's produced. If you go to the supermarkets now you will find that if you buy table grapes—the Cotton Candy table grapes, the green table grapes and the crimson reds—they're all currently grown in Sunraysia; almost anywhere in Australia, if you go and get table grapes now, they're from my patch. By Easter time, the autumn leaves will be on the vineyards as they start to change colour, and it's a wonderful place to take the bikes and go for a ride amongst the vineyards and enjoy.

Can I emphasise to people that life is busy; life is hard; we work hard; we are often in congested cities. But getting out to regional Australia, and particularly regional Victoria, on the Easter weekend is something that Australians should value. There are so many beautiful spots in our patch. I think we get so busy in this place talking about the great challenges that we're trying to address that we don't take enough time to breathe. We don't take enough time to spend with family, do a bit of camping and enjoy some time. And we are so very blessed as a country. So get out to the Wimmera and the Mallee. Get out and eat some of the great food and enjoy some of the great culture. See the lovely silo art, the Grampians peak trail, the Murray River and the Heartbeat of the Murray laser show. It's a wonderful place to be. You'll find the people with a spring in their step and very happy. And you'll feel better for coming to my part of the world.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we head towards International Women's Day for 2018, I'd like to talk about the global #GirlsTakeover program, which saw 17 young women with interests in a career in politics spend a day with us as members of parliament. The Plan International program coincided with the launch of the She can lead report, which showed that we have a very long way to go to get the equal representation we need in this place. Almost half the young women surveyed for the report felt that there were not enough opportunities for them to become politicians, and one in three women felt their gender was a barrier.

I was joined for the day by a fabulous young woman, Brianna Keys, who wrote some words on this very issue that I would like to share with the parliament today:

The first time someone told me they believed I had the potential to become a great leader is a memory I have never forgotten. I was only 15 at the time and I remember my utter disbelief that someone thought I could lead. I remember the sinking feeling in my stomach that I knew I could never live up to their expectations of me. That they didn't know who I really was. I wasn't confident, I wasn't hard working and I wasn't ambitious. I didn't possess any traits I thought a leader was meant to have.

Then the memories came flooding back. I remembered all the times someone had told me I wasn't good enough. I remember being told that I'd never amount to anything. That pursuing my passion in a male dominated industry was going to be too hard. That it would be such a waste of a pretty face to go into that area. That I'd never make it to university. That I was better off going with another option. That I shouldn't be so opinionated. That because I was a girl I was never going to be good enough.

One of the biggest barriers stopping women from pursuing leadership positions is their gender. The fact that I was a female stopped me from seeing my potential. The 'She Can Lead'report brings to attention the gender barrier experienced by many young Australians. It is a call to action that Australia needs to nurture young girl's leadership potential. We will no longer stay quiet and be told what we can't do. It's time to start breaking down barriers Australia.

I would like to add to the words that I've just quoted from Brianna Keys, because Brianna's experiences are especially poignant in the wake of the utterly deplorable comments from the former Minister for Women in this place yesterday. There is no room for such vile and treacherous slurs against the many hundreds of professional women working tirelessly in this building. We should condemn those comments and that minister should apologise.