Jeannie Ferris (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, 15 October, was World Rural Women’s Day, a day that aims to both increase the recognition of country women and to support the multiple roles they undertake around the world. Rural women everywhere play a crucial role in ensuring food security, particularly in Third World countries, and in the development and stability of rural areas. Yet in many developing nations, where women have little or no status, they often lack the power to gain access to vital services such as education, credit, training and basic health.

In Australia, more than two million women live outside the metropolitan area. Estimates suggest that women in our country contribute up to 48 per cent of the country’s real farm income. Tonight, as our country enters perhaps its worst drought in a century, let us all pause for a moment to consider the stress of a farm without rain. Several years ago I spent a week visiting far western New South Wales to talk to families about the impact of the then drought on their lives. I saw the empty dams, the children’s ponies dying, the stock being taken off pastures that were simply dust bowls and the heartbreak in a family that was affected by drought then. For many of these areas in far western New South Wales there has still been no rain and they are now entering their fourth or fifth year of drought. My heart goes out to those families.

Recent research undertaken by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation suggests that businesses run by women in rural and regional areas have a significant local impact on employment and on incomes across rural Australia. These businesses and the women who run them add to the diversity of regional areas and the regional business mix. It is estimated that income generated by regional women’s businesses in Australia is in the order of $1.2 billion every year. These are important figures to highlight, especially in the wake of World Rural Women’s Day, because they show how important women are to our country. Imagine what shape Australia’s rural economy would be in without this injection of capital and the employment that women bring, never mind the stability that they provide for their families in regional and remote areas.

Just as there are diverse geographical regions in Australia and differences in agribusiness, so there is diversity in the background of many rural women. Organisations such as the CWA remain an important part of rural women’s lives, and these longstanding organisations have now been joined by groups such as the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women and Australian Women in Agriculture. I look around the chamber tonight and I know that in all parties there are a number of women who have come to this place from rural Australia, bringing their own special skills and experiences. My own experiences, as editor of a country newspaper and through my work at the National Farmers Federation and in the CSIRO, have enabled me to meet many inspirational rural women, and I have been privileged to call many of them friends over many years.

The establishment of an annual day dedicated to honouring rural women began at a UN conference for women in Beijing in 1995. At the time, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, Associated Country Women of the World, the Network of African Rural Women’s Associations and the Women’s World Summit Foundation were the main proponents. World Rural Women’s Day was considered a practical way of giving recognition and support for the multiple roles played by rural women, who are mostly farmers and small entrepreneurs.

While reflecting on World Rural Women’s Day tonight, I think it is also important to recognise the severe impact that the current drought is having on rural families and the women who are usually their anchor. This year, rural women’s day is being held when Australia is suffering some of its worst drought conditions on record, with winter rainfalls across the Murray-Darling Basin in the lowest 10 per cent since records began 110 years ago. This drought is also affecting women who are small business owners in rural areas, those who help volunteer groups like the CWA and those who work every day in their local community either in paid employment or in a voluntary capacity. Today’s announcement by the Prime Minister of an extension to drought support will no doubt be welcomed by women and their families across this country.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher, a woman I very much admire, once said, ‘It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.’ In speaking here tonight I hope that that comment encourages more country women to accept that they are very valued for their contribution and that the work they do, both in their rural communities and within their families, is an inestimable contribution to this country.