Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today, a privileged girl cum woman from a First World country—an MP from Melbourne's west who has seen her first female Prime Minister in this country. She was from a party that lives affirmative action, with 48 per cent female representation in our federal parliament as we stand here today. I stand to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, and I do so with my 2019 Labor colleagues. I thank the member for Jagajaga and I'm pleased to second the motion.

Like all Australian children, I'm lucky to have been born in a country with compulsory education; a country where females make up 51 per cent of tertiary students. But this is not the story around the world. On the International Day of the Girl Child, it is important that we look at what we can do globally to improve the lives of girls and women around the globe—and that begins with education.

We know that more than 130 million girls between the ages of six and 17 are not attending school, and that 15 million girls of primary school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa—will never enter a classroom. We know that violence negatively impacts access to education and a safe environment for learning for girls. We know that more than 41,000 girls under the age of 18 marry every day. Child brides are much more likely to drop out of school, and this affects the education and health of themselves and their children, as well as their ability to earn a living. We know that every day girls face barriers to education caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence and fragility.

The world is now talking about the need for education for girls and the transformative power education provides. I want to remind the members in this place that it is our duty not just to continue the work in our own forums but to influence and support the work in developing nations. Let's speed up this journey in developing countries; the best way to do that is through education. The answer is ensuring access to classrooms in communities across the globe. As our own former Prime Minister Gillard, board chair of the Global Partnerships for Education, has said:

If you want to change a nation, to change our planet, educate a girl.

I draw the House's attention to the work of contemporary women who champion gender equality and who are making considerable contributions to national and international debates about gender equality.

I commend our own historian—our very own history chick—Clare Wright, author of Beyond the Ladies Lounge, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom. In her work, Clare researches, celebrates and populates our history with the women missing from that history. She outlines for us how women were publicans across Melbourne and Victoria in the earliest settlements in our country. She outlines the women involved in our seminal historic moment: the rebellion at Eureka. And, in You Daughters of Freedom, she outlines the history of our suffragettes, the suffragist movement, and how our Australian women were leaders internationally in ensuring that women got the vote.

I also commend the work of Caroline Criado-Perez. Her groundbreaking book Invisible Women describes a female-shaped absent presence that is the gender data gap. Her research is prompting new conversations about how data bereft of representation from half the population is driving decisions in health, education, infrastructure, and, in fact, every facet of modern life. And it cannot do so without taking into consideration the 50 per cent of the population which today is so very pleasingly represented in this chamber.

I commend to the House the contemporary women leading work in gender equity. I count among them our own Julia Gillard, who is working tirelessly for women's representation and leadership for women as well as girls' education. I call upon members of this House to commit to a restoration of our aid budget so that we can assist in funding, planning and building systems to ensure that the basic human right to an education becomes a reality for girls in every community in every country across our globe.

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