Some of you will have seen the news coverage relating to the gender composition the Australia 2020 summit steering committee. I am concerned, like a large proportion of Australians, that the 11-person steering committee announced yesterday has only one female member.

Neglecting women at this pivotal part of the summit planning could very easily lead to women’s experiences not being represented at this important opportunity to shape Australia’s future. It may seem an obvious point to make, but women make up half the population of this country and if we assume merit is distributed equally among the sexes, women like men make up some of our best and brightest.

As selection of the discussion groups will be drawn from the nomination process, I urge women of all ages and backgrounds to put their names forward. Women interested in nominating for the Australia 2020 summit should nominate by close of business this Friday, 29 February, by going to www.australia2020.gov.au

Opening the 52^nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon launched a seven year campaign to end violence against women.

As the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner I give my support to this campaign and I urge all Australians to sign the Say No to Violence petition at http://www.saynotoviolence.org/. The United Nations Foundation has committed to donate US $1  for each of the first 100,000 signatures to the campaign.

Violence against women is a serious and pervasive human rights violation in Australia. Violence has a tremendous personal cost for affected women, as well as social and economic costs for our community as a whole.

• As many as 1 in 3 Australian women are affected by domestic and family violence[1]
• Domestic violence is the leading contributor to preventable death, disability and illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44[2]
• The estimated total annual cost of domestic violence in 2002-03 is $8.1 billion[3]
• Nearly 1 in 5 Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15[4]
• 80% of women who have experienced sexual assault know the perpetrator[5]

In his address Secretary-General stated, ‘Violence against women is an issue that cannot wait. A brief look at the statistics makes it clear. At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge. Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk free.’

There are no excuses for violence against women. Everyone has a role to play in challenging this violence: individuals, communities, governments and business. I look forward to working with the new federal government to ensure that women in Australia can exercise their right to live a life free from violence.

Elizabeth Broderick

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[1] Mouzos, J. and Makkai, T. (2004) Women’s Experiences of Male Violence: Findings from the AustralianComponent of the International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS) Research and Public Policy SeriesNo. 56, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.[2] VicHealth (2004) The Health Costs of Violence: Measuring the burden of disease caused b intimate partner violence, Vichealth, Melbourne.[3] Access Economics (2004) The cost of domestic violence to the Australian economy, Australian Government, Canberra.

[4] Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005) Personal Safety Survey, (Cat. No. 4906.0).

[5] Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005) Personal Safety Survey, (Cat. No. 4906.0).