Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Since her appointment as foreign minister, the Hon. Julie Bishop has insisted that addressing gender inequality, particularly in our neighbouring region, be a priority for a government. The members of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade welcomed the opportunity to advance this agenda, with an inquiry into empowering women and girls and into the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific region.

When you look at the nations this region includes, there is a great difference in size and character, but they all have their own challenges. To take just one example, we need to look no further than our nearest neighbour and friend, Papua New Guinea. Just look at some of the stark facts. Five women die every day in childbirth, the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. More than 90 per cent of women and girls have been victims of domestic violence. In Australia, we have one doctor for every 302 residents. In PNG, there is one doctor for every 17,068 people. In a country challenged by geography, challenged by more than 700 villages—85 per cent of the population lives outside Port Moresby—and challenged by more than 800 different languages, there are just 51 doctors outside the capital city. Five point five per cent of babies die before they are two years old. In Australia, we spend $6,600 per capita on health every year and there is always a call for a bigger spend; in Papua New Guinea, it is just $67.

So where to start for this inquiry? There are so many challenges, but, equally, there are a plethora of faith based, service, government and non-government organisations providing aid and support programs into these countries. Indeed, one of my ongoing frustrations is the lack of coordination between these many groups. While I appreciate the need for statistics and factual data, it is disappointing that many organisations operate in silos. We need better coordination and better cooperation and we need to share the information. We heard that some groups simply monitor other groups and then express strong views on how programs should be delivered, having never actually operated under the difficult conditions in these countries. To me, there seem to be fewer organisations actually delivering programs on the ground. So recommendation 32 attempts to resolve some of this by calling for improved data collection and reporting. Another frustration of mine is the amount of duplication and programs operating in parallel without collaboration or coordination. One of the successful organisations in the Pacific is the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, who also provide support to neighbouring countries. They have established a variety of programs addressing key issues which can be adapted to other countries and social situations. They run courses for men in the community, including local football teams, and have established a 'male champion' program. Rather than reinvent the wheel, the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre is well positioned to deliver these programs into other parts of the region, as identified in recommendation 23.

As you can see from the size of this report, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is no one easy solution to these many challenges, but many of the recommendations make good, common sense. Recommendation 18 states:

The Committee recommends that Australian Government agencies working in the Indo-Pacific region take advantage of opportunities to partner with faith based networks where they play a major role in delivery of health care services and care support.

Many of our faith based organisations have been in these regions for decades. They know the local people, they often speak the local dialect and the local people have learnt to trust them, so surely we are better delivering programs through these existing networks and organisations than establishing a separate operation to do it in parallel at greater expense. We could get more value for our aid dollar by delivering through these faith based organisations. There are other practical solutions. Recommendation 5 states:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government:

Once again, these are practical solutions, supporting women in leadership roles who can be mentors to other women in the community and protect their rights.

The next section, 'Violence against women and girls', recommends that the Australian government engage with governments in the Indo-Pacific region to highlight the extent of violence against women and girls and the persistence of the problem. So I was delighted to be a member of an all-party delegation, with then Minister Ciobo, at the end of last year. We went to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Solomon Islands, and we looked at the problems there during the 16 Days of Activism Against Domestic Violence. Minister Ciobo led the way in highlighting the Australian government's desire to address these issues in those countries, and we had some very interesting meetings with governments in those places.

As the Minister for Foreign Affairs has observed, when women are able to actively participate in the economy and in community decision making, everybody benefits. Section 7 of the report refers to women in leadership. The Pacific Women's Parliamentary Partnerships Forum is a great initiative, but we still have a long way to go.

Disappointingly, no women were elected at the recent election in Vanuatu, despite so many good candidates. That was a very disappointing outcome.

I understand that not everyone supports a quota system for women to be elected to parliament, but there are other ways of achieving it. I congratulate the President of Samoa, who has decreed that, in the upcoming election, in 10 per cent of the seats there will be a woman elected—but not at the expense of the man. Say a woman does not get as high a vote as a male candidate. The 10 women who get the highest votes will be deemed elected. But the male candidate will also be elected. So the voters in that constituency will have two members for that term. The President is increasing the size of parliament to make sure that there are women represented in the parliament, which is a novel way of achieving it.

In Papua New Guinea, we were very disappointed when Dame Carol Kidu retired, and there was no quota system in place; we were concerned. But it was great that we had three strong women elected, and I pay particular tribute to Julie Soso Akeke, the first ever female governor to be elected. She is the Governor of Goroka in the highlands, a very difficult part of Papua New Guinea. Julie is doing an amazing job.

Significant improvements have been achieved through our aid program in 2014-15. A new gender equality fund and a revised strategic direction will increase progress towards meeting our gender equality target and empowering women and girls. This fund supports commitments to advance international efforts on critical gender equality issues, including ending violence against women and girls and promoting women's leadership. The government has set a target requiring that at least 80 per cent of investments, regardless of their objectives, will effectively address gender issues in their implementation. However, there is no doubt that additional funding in this area would be of incredible benefit and is sorely needed. Indeed, achieving many of our recommendations will require more budget allocation. I trust that this report will also value-add to that agenda and make a positive contribution.

I thank the member for Berowra for his always-professional chairmanship and his untiring commitment to human rights all around the world during his time in this place. His new role is most fitting.

I also thank my fellow committee members for their valuable contributions. It is particularly worth noting that these recommendations have bipartisan support, as we all share a genuine desire to remedy the plight of so many women and children in our region. I give my appreciation to the inquiry secretariat, Sonya Fladun and her team, who worked tirelessly to source appropriate witnesses and managed to pull together some very disparate evidence and submissions. I commend the report to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 11: 30

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