No Boundary Fence; Gender Equality in Regional, Rural and Remote Australia - WOW Festival

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this fantastic event, alongside some incredible women.

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I welcome the prominence that First Nations people have at this conference. I also acknowledge my fellow panellists for this session.

It is timely that we are here today to discuss gender equality in rural, regional and remote Australia.

I feel passionate about this topic. I grew up on an orchard in Templestowe, now a suburb of Melbourne. When I explain to people what Templestowe was like when I was born, I usually say that the six-lane road bordering the property now was simply the boundary fence.

I have recently returned from a week in New York where, with my colleague Commissioner June Oscar, I attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women − the UN’s largest meeting on gender equality and women’s rights.

This forum is a great opportunity for women across the globe to come together to share ideas and experiences and find ways to accelerate progress towards gender equality. This year, the forum focused on the empowerment of rural women and girls.

The meeting was also an opportunity to promote the Australian Human Rights Commission’s work in protecting the human rights of women and girls in rural, regional and remote Australia, and to learn from governments and organisations around the world about successful initiatives to drive change.

While the forum enabled us to reflect on Australia’s progress on gender equality, it also reminded us how far we still have to go.

To set the scene, in 2011:

• over two-thirds of Australians lived in major cities,
• one in five lived in inner regional areas,
• one in ten in outer regional areas and
• around one in forty lived in remote or very remote areas.
• Indigenous people comprise 9% of the population in regional areas, 15% in remote areas and 49% in very remote areas.

One third of Australian women live in rural, regional and remote areas, and they play a crucial role in strengthening rural communities. My fellow panellists are testament to that.

In particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in rural, regional and remote areas are the backbone of their communities – my colleague June Oscar (who spoke in the last session) is another one of those women.

Australia has a strong history of progress on gender equality.

In 1895, South Australia was the first Australian colony to give women the vote, and only the fourth place in the world to do so.

In the 1960’s Australia gave women access to the contraception pill.

In 1972, the Arbitration Commission adopted the principle of equal pay for work of equal value regardless of the sex of the worker.

Australia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1983, and following this, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) was passed by the Federal Parliament. This Act also established my position of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, as part of the Australian Human Rights Commission.

However, we know that there are still many key areas in which we do not have gender equality.

My focus as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner is to address sex discrimination and promote gender equality across three priority areas:

• prevention of violence against women and girls,
• women’s economic security and empowerment, and
• diversity in leadership.

When we talk about women’s inequality – gendered violence, women’s economic insecurity, and a lack of representation in leadership, we know that these inequalities are exacerbated in rural, regional and remote areas.

When I commenced my term as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 2016, I spent time travelling around the country, conducting consultations and hearing women’s stories about what is important to them.

Those conversations told me that additional barriers are experienced by women in rural, regional and remote areas, in achieving gender equality.

For example, I heard heartbreaking stories from Aboriginal women experiencing domestic violence in remote Western Australia. They talked of fears of reporting their abuse to police, where a report might count against their rental record for disturbance at their property, or fears that police would report the violence to family services. They said they would rather remain in a violent home than risk homelessness, losing their children and losing the financial support provided by their partner.  

It was clear to me that living in isolation gives women less support and fewer options to escape violence and discrimination.

In rural, regional and remote areas, women’s economic security can be at greater risk than in other areas of the country.

We know our rural and regional communities face crisis: natural disasters, supply chain pressures, business closures, and production moving overseas. These financial pressures affect employment, education, health and family violence rates.

One example I heard was of a daughter taken out of school to work at home as an unpaid farm worker, while the son remained in school to get the education he needed to take on the family farm business in the future.

I heard many stories of how women often contribute to family businesses in an unpaid capacity, missing out on wages and superannuation contributions, only to be omitted from property inheritance based on the historic practice of leaving the farm to the sons.

I also heard of resistance to women taking on non-traditional roles − a woman who faced severe discrimination and abuse while working as a jillaroo, another who faced opposition to her becoming a mechanic. These practices leave women’s economic security at greater risk than in other areas of the country.

Leadership is also crucial, particularly in rural, regional and remote areas, with women having input to the operation of their local communities. Sadly, we know that women are significantly under-represented in local government, local boards, community and sporting leadership roles, despite their huge contribution on a volunteering basis to key community organisations.

In 2015, women made up 46% of the total local government workforce in Australia, however only 23% of mayors, 30% of councillors and only 11% of Council CEOs. It is wonderful to have Mayor Vonda Malone from Torres Strait Shire with us today.

To drive change in gender equality, I have chosen three priority settings – workplaces, education and sport.

Where we live, learn, work and play were identified as high impact settings for change in Change the Story - a shared national framework developed by Our Watch, ANROWS and VicHealth for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia.

Change the Story recognises that laws are not enough − we need to take multiple reinforcing initiatives in high impact settings for change to break down the attitudinal and systemic barriers to equality.

Each of the settings are chosen for their reach into the community and opportunities to have a significant impact.

Priority projects

At the Commission, I am currently leading a number of projects, which target these priority settings, and which have an impact on women in rural, regional and remote areas.

In workplaces, I continue to have a strong focus on advocating for strategies to prevent and effectively respond to sexual harassment, particularly following the rise of the #MeToo movement.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has, for the past 15 years, conducted five yearly surveys on the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace.

The fourth iteration of this survey will be conducted this year, providing a fourth wave of comparative data. It will also, for the first time, provide data on the prevalence of harassment within major industry sectors.

The reality is that the evidence has shown us for a long time now that sexual harassment and sexual assault occur far too frequently in Australian workplaces and society more broadly.

The 2012 survey results indicated that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men had been sexually harassed in the workplace in the previous 5 years.

Unfortunately, we know that women in rural, regional and remote areas are likely to experience higher rates of sexual harassment and have fewer options to seek support.

In my consultations, I heard that there is a high tolerance of sexism and discrimination against women working in traditionally male-dominated industries like agriculture and mining.

I also heard that, in a small town it can be difficult to make a complaint due to a reluctance to undermine close community ties, the difficulty in finding alternative employment and the risk of exclusion from services where they are limited.

With this year’s survey examining the prevalence of harassment within major industry sectors, we hope that we can identify more targeted strategies for workplaces to prevent and effectively respond to these issues.

Last year, the Australian Human Rights Commission released Change the course, a national report on sexual assault and sexual harassment at Australian universities.

This report was based on the results of a National university student survey conducted in late 2016.

The survey examined the prevalence, nature and reporting of sexual assault and sexual harassment at Australia’s 39 universities, and was completed by more than 30,000 students, making it the largest survey of its kind in Australia.

The report also includes case studies and quotes from more than 1800 written submissions we received. This was the greatest number of submissions ever received by the Commission in relation to a single piece of work, demonstrating the magnitude of this issue.

Our survey found that one in five students was sexually harassed at university in 2016.

1.6% of students were sexually assaulted in a university setting in 2015 or 2016.

Women were twice as likely as men to be sexually harassed at university and three times as likely to be sexually assaulted.

Australia’s regional universities play a vital role in supporting regional economies. Universities also play a critical role in shaping general attitudes toward women and community safety among the next generation of leaders in Australia.

As Sex Discrimination Commissioner, I will continue to hold universities to account, on behalf of the students and survivors who shared their stories with us for Change the course.

It will be no surprise to you that sport is a powerful setting for social change and influencing community attitudes – across issues such as sexism, violence against women, racism and inclusion. 

It has wide community reach from the grass-roots level through to elite sports. Look at what the Commonwealth Games is doing right now for the Gold Coast communities: creating work as well as sporting opportunities, and reinvigorating the community.

We have seen huge growth of women’s sport at the elite level, creating inspiration for young girls to participate in sport and pathways for young girls to advance in their sports.

Southern Stars cricket and the WBBL, Women’s Rugby 7s, AFLW, Mathilda’s, Diamonds, Hockeyroos, as well as our swimmers, athletes, rowers and cyclists inspire the nation, and have created huge growth in sports participation of girls.

Last week I helped launch VicHealth’s This Girl Can campaign, aimed at encouraging more women to become physically active. It shows women participating in many different sports, encouraging women to overcome gendered judgements about their appearance, ability and priorities to get involved in sports, no matter how sweaty they get, how red their face becomes or how much the jiggle.

And junior sport is often at the heart of rural, regional and remote communities. Junior sport is a key activity through which children and young people learn about social norms and develop attitudes towards people with diverse backgrounds and abilities.

The Australian federal, state and territory sports commissions, children’s commissioners and human rights agencies partner together in an organisation called Play by the Rules, that provides information, resources, tools and free online training to increase the capacity and capability of administrators, coaches, officials, players, parents and spectators to ensure grass roots sport is safe, fair and inclusive. I encourage you to look at our website.

My colleagues at the Commission are also leading a number of projects that have a particular impact on women in rural, regional and remote Australia. For example:

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, June Oscar, is leading the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women's Voices) Project − a national conversation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls to capture their voices with respect to their cultural, socio-economic and personal security.

The Age Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Kay Patterson, is working with the property and finance industries, government departments, housing organisations and other interested parties, to develop a suite of innovative solutions to address the rising risk of homelessness for single older women, which is a particular issue in rural, regional and remote areas also.

The National Children’s Commissioner, Megan Mitchell, has focused on the rights and needs of young parents and their children, with a view to improving access to health, education and employment opportunities – which varies significantly between metropolitan and regional areas − as part of the Young Parents Project. The findings of this project are published in the 2017 Children’s Rights Report.

The Australian Human Rights Commission is also currently considering options to examine the barriers to economic security for women and girls in rural, regional and remote areas.

I believe that we do not currently have a comprehensive national picture of the experiences and human rights issues facing women in rural, regional and remote areas, and more specifically, the barriers to achieving economic security and empowerment.

It would be an opportunity to consult nationally, to identify barriers, key themes and opportunities for progress as well as build on June’s work.

The findings of such a consultation could inform future planning by governments, the private sector and community to improve women’s access to opportunities and services in order to achieve greater economic security.

It is a huge privilege to present at this landmark conference and to be able to spotlight the most important issues facing the one third of Australian women living in rural, regional remote communities.

Our wide brown land should be a place where we all want to be and I believe we can and should make rural areas a better place for women and families to visit and live.

Thank you.