International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day Special Interest Speech 24 March 2020

Mr President, as we are still in the month of March, I am taking the opportunity to speak today in the context of International Women’s Day.

March 8th was International Women’s Day. 

It is a global day to bring focus to the continuing inequality experienced by women globally. 

The United Nations highlights that:

Despite some progress, real change has been and continues to be, very slow for the majority of women and girls in the world.

There is not a single country globally that can claim to have achieved full gender equality.

Many obstacles remain for women in law and in culture.

Women and girls continue to be undervalued; they work more and earn less and have fewer choices.

Women experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces.

And, in many countries, there are significant efforts to rollback hard-won feminist gains.
There is still much work to be done.

Which is why, each year, IWD provides an important opportunity to mobilize global action to achieve gender equality and human rights of all women and girls.

Mr President, IWD is also a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. 

This can be a day of actively celebrating women’s achievements and encouraging their passions.

Today I want to celebrate the achievements of two remarkable young women in my community, Emelia Howell and Clara Kim.

Emelia Howell

Emelia Howell’s passion is soccer.

I was delighted to attend the 2020 Kingborough Awards in January this year and witness Emelia being named the Young Citizen of the Year for her outstanding commitment and leadership to young women through sport.

She has been coaching under-8 girls’ soccer for the Kingborough Lions United Football Club since she was just 12 years old.

She is one of Kingborough’s youngest coaches.

She coaches and trains 3 days a week.

On weekends she is playing in her own games and supporting the games of the girls she coaches. 

She is involved with junior ‘come and try’ days, and she volunteers her time at the Women’s Soccer League and to help run holiday programs for the Club.

Emmie was very humbled to be singled out for this award.

As she sees it, she is part of a team, and it is the whole team that deserves to be recognized including her friend and fellow young coach Jess Shreeve.

Jess first came along to soccer training to help Emelia, then started coaching herself.

Riley Pitchford, the junior development coordinator at the club says it is hard to get young people, particularly girls, to step up to coaching roles.

But studies show that giving girls leadership opportunities early in life develops self-confidence, problem solving skills and sets them up for future success.

It is Emmie’s sense of teamwork that epitomises her coaching style.

She aims to give her players confidence to participate in and enjoy the game.

Emmie and Jess are part of the ladder of inspiration that helps girls to stick with sport. 

But Emmie also just loving playing for the sake of it and wants her girls to love it too. 

It is young women like Emelia and Jess who will be our sports superstars and community leaders in the years to come and I wish them every success.

Clara Kim

Clara Kim is an equally talented young woman living in the Nelson community.

Clara’s passion is communicating, particularly public speaking.

I first met Clara at Taroona High School where I was honoured to present her with the Debating and Public Speaking scholarship in 2019.

But Clara has many other accolades to her name.

In 2019 she came third in the national My First Speech Competition.

This nationwide competition asks students to put themselves in the shoes of a newly elected Member of Parliament, and deliver a three minute speech about an issue they are passionate about.

Clara spoke on ways the government could increase access to education in Australia’s rural and regional areas.

Placing third nationally offered Clara the opportunity to visit Canberra and to give her speech on the floor in Parliament.

I invite members to reflect back to their first speech in this house.

And now imagine giving the speech at the age of 15, in Federal Parliament, knowing it is being broadcast across the country. 

You can probably understand why Clara described it as ‘nerve-wracking’.

But she was also thrilled to do it, describing the experience as ‘gold’.

Clara is also the Tasmanian recipient of the 2019 Simpson prize, a competition which encourages participants to explore the significance of the Anzac experience and what it has meant for Australia. 

In 2019 Clara also won the International Student of the Year Award at the Study Tasmania’s International Student Shine awards and a Chinese Language proficiency award.

You might think, with all these awards, that Clara is a natural public speaker but she sees it differently.

I was surprised when she told me that, although she loves public speaking, she felt that initially she wasn’t very good at it.

Clara said she would feel nervous and it didn’t come naturally; it was something she had to work at.

She told me, “If you want to do better for yourself, you will find a way to get better.”

Clara credits her role models and mentors as being important to her success – in particular the encouragement and support she received from her teachers at Taroona High School.

When we talked about public speaking, Clara noted that as a society we are attuned to hearing male voices as powerful. 

It is another, often unconscious bias we hold which can be a barrier to women’s equality. 

Clara wants to tell other young women that they too can speak up, and be powerful, with their own feminine voice.

I add my voice to that call, as I am sure my colleagues in this place do too.

I wish Clara every success, and I feel confident that hers is a voice of leadership we will most certainly be hearing into the future.