Asian Women at Work focus group participants, Sydney, December 2007.

Adelaide Community Consultation, Elizabeth Broderick with Michelle Hogan (Safe Work SA), November 2007.

YWCA young women’s focus group participants, Adelaide, November 2007.

Today I am proud to be part of a country that has finally listened to the stories of thousands of Indigenous people who told us about their horrific experiences of being separated from their families. As a mother, I can only start to imagine the nightmare of having your child taken from you. I can only start to imagine the grief, the loss and the pain that continues across communities and generations for many years. For the injustices of the past, I would like to convey my heartfelt sorrow to members of the Stolen Generations, and pay my deepest respects to you for your determination and resilience.

In my meetings with Indigenous women and men as part of my Listening Tour, I have heard many stories of  prejudice and discrimination. I have heard about the difficulty in accessing appropriate services and frustrations with governments who consult but don’t listen. I have heard of struggles to get jobs, and struggles to be heard. I have heard about racism, and pre-judgment that continues to be a shared experience amongst Indigenous Australians.

It is my hope that today is the start of a new era where we not only hear the stories and experiences of Indigenous people, but as a nation we listen. Because it is only when we listen that we learn. And when we learn, we begin to understand.  I am looking forward to my upcoming visits to Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland where I will continue to spend some time listening to Indigenous communities.

Today I would also like to acknowledge the hard work and determination of my colleague Tom Calma, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.  I am humbled and honoured to be his colleague.  Tom’s unit has produced a range of resources supporting the 1997 Bringing them home Report including the Us Taken-Away Kids, a magazine launched in late 2007 commemorating the 10th anniversary of the report. I highly recommend these to you. You can access them here [www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/].

I encourage us all to listen, to learn and to understand.

Liz

We met some wonderful members of the National Seniors Association who shared their experiences of ageing in 2008, both as people from the ‘baby boomer’ generation and those in their 70s and 80s.

We heard about the subtle discrimination that can go on against older people in job interviews. For example, an employer making an assumption that a person with significant experience won’t be happy with a less senior role when in fact the person may prefer such a position.

Do these experiences sound familiar to you?

I was reminded that whilst it is very important to work on the big issues, like having access to an adequate standard of living in retirement, and a safe place to live, it is also the seemingly little things that can make a real difference to people’s lives.

Having to take your shoes off when you go through airport security can be frustrating for anyone. But, when you have limited mobility already as an older person, you may need to be able to sit and do this.

So, why aren’t there chairs available so that people can sit down if they need to?

And why are shopping centres being built that have so few places to sit down, and no way to get to the other end without walking the long malls?

These are some of the questions put to me. What do you think?

Liz

What a great turnout for our public consultation in Canberra! Thank you to the ACT Human Rights Commission for co-hosting the event.

Many women related to Margaret’s story and we heard about some innovative seminars with young women to build financial literacy skills.

Once again we heard about the policy and practice mismatch where flexible work policies exist but the workplace culture is a barrier to their uptake. This tells me that we need to seriously think about how we get that critical mass to make flexible work mainstream.

Carers ACT has devised an “Employee Carers Program” to assist both employees and employers to extend their thinking around flexibility. They act as an intermediary in the discussion about how a job might be redesigned for a flexible work arrangement. They bring with them a knowledge of other workplaces which assists employees and employers to think creatively. The program has been very successful and with only two caseworkers there is much unmet demand.

In the consultation, there was a strong view that gender equality needs to be given greater prominence in the public arena. Participants agreed that discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence were part of a continuum of gender related violence in our society. For example, we were asked why there has been a strong zero tolerance approach to racism on the sporting field, and yet a much less clear position when it came to overt sexism and sexual harassment in sport?

Do you think that sex-based discrimination and harassment are part of a continuum of violence against women?

Liz

Some 2.5 million families provide care to someone in the community. Of those, nearly half a million are primary carers for others in the community. 70% of these carers are women.

When I met with Carers Australia, the national peak body working to promote the needs and interests of carers in our community, I was very concerned to hear that 44% of carers who are in paid work are working below their skill level in order to obtain the workplace flexibility they require to fulfill their caring responsibilities. This was reported by the Taskforce on Care Costs which you can read more about here.

Carers Australia is strongly supportive of national legislation, a new Family Responsibilities and Carers’ Rights Act to provide employed carers with the right to work flexibly and obtain appropriate carers leave. This was one of the recommendations of our It’s About Time Report, released in March last year.

I am keen to hear from carers about your experiences in balancing work with caring responsibilities. Are you getting the support you need from your employer?

Do we need greater legal protection to prevent discrimination on the grounds of family and caring responsibilities?

I look forward to your responses.

Liz