Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tomorrow the world will recognise the fourth International Day of the Girl Child—an opportunity to raise the awareness about the rights of girls and the particular challenges they face. Girls face particular barriers and challenges which can restrict them from reaching their full potential and which do them harm. They hold the potential to become leaders and effect change, yet their empowerment can be hindered by factors such as unwanted pregnancy, forced early marriage, gender based violence and limited access to higher education and reproductive health services. It is my honour to join all Australians and our friends globally in celebrating the day and to take this opportunity to describe this issue of gender equality—an issue about which I have always been an advocate and to which I am deeply committed. Gender equality is vital to the ongoing prosperity of our country and to continued economic growth and development worldwide.

Australia continues to empower girls in its foreign policy agenda and aid program through: appointing an Ambassador for Women And Girls; creating a $55 million Gender Equality Fund; implementing Australia's Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Strategy, a new $10 million gender action platform that will provide more opportunities to improve outcomes for women and girls in the Indo-Pacific region; and the government's Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development program.

Despite making up half the population, in too many countries girls do not get an education if they are from a poor or rural family, are in an ethnic minority or have a disability. And no-one can forget the case of Malala, who was shot in the face by the Taliban merely for fighting for the basic right of young girls to get an education. Child marriages, early marriages and forced marriages are violations of human rights which have diverse consequences for the enjoyment of human rights such as the right to education and health care. According to UNICEF, every 10 minutes an adolescent girl dies somewhere in the world as a result of violence.

Under the women's leadership and development strategy, the Turnbull government has provided funding to a number of organisations aimed at empowering young women and girls, especially in the areas in which they are most vulnerable. These include the Multicultural Centre for Women's Health and Women With Disabilities Australia so that they can undertake the development of position statements, workshops and a national forum. I am proud of the investment that the Turnbull government has made to address this critical need to build the evidence base for gender indicators for culturally and linguistically diverse women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and women with a disability. Of course, there is also last month's announcement of a $6½ million investment in the United Nations Women's Making Every Woman and Girl Count program—a public-private partnership. These and other initiatives, as well as consistent, ongoing efforts, go a long way to achieving the targets for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls by 2030, as established by the United Nations sustainable development goals. Furthermore, they directly address the requirement that governments, national aid agencies, global companies and foundations all contribute their time, energy and resources to gender equality.

I have stated before that I believe that authentic feminism, practised by men and women alike and underpinned by structural mechanisms such as those the Turnbull government have implemented, will pave the way to address the complex and multidimensional issue of gender equality, where men support men and women and where women support men and women. It follows that men and women must support boys and girls in equal measure and that our boys and girls are actively encouraged to support each other from the outset. Achieving gender equality is indeed a continuous and long-term undertaking that requires the commitment of us all, for us all.

In Australia we are comparatively immune from the atrocities and crises that afflict girls in some other parts of the world. Child marriage, honour killings and trafficking are all alarmingly widespread practices which deprive girls of their most basic of human rights and entangle them in vicious and limiting cycles. However, the challenges faced by Australian girls are no less worthy of our attention and our action: poverty, discrimination, family violence and mental health concerns. It is paramount that we continue to actively invest in the health, safety, quality education and rights of our girls, not least to ensure that they enjoy the full breadth of their human rights and unlock their potential personally and in their families, communities and society.

See this speech in context