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Dana Wortley, Senator for South Australia
First Speech - 18/08/2005
Senator WORTLEY (South Australia)
(5.25 pm)—Growing up in Adelaide’s northern
suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s, I could
not have imagined that one day I would
stand in this chamber as a representative of
the Australian Labor Party, elected by the
people of South Australia to the Australian
Senate. It is an honour, and one that I will
treat with the greatest respect.
South Australia was the first state to give
women the right to vote in state parliament,
in 1895, and, along with Western Australia in
1901, the right to vote in a federal election.
Today I stand with my Labor colleagues
South Australian senators Annette Hurley,
Penny Wong, Linda Kirk and Anne McEwen
as, together with Democrat Senator Natasha Stott Despoja and Liberal senators Jeannie
Ferris and Amanda Vanstone, South Australia
becomes the first state to have a majority of
women in one parliament in the Senate. In
this, the 41st Parliament of Australia, eight of
the 12 South Australian senators are women.
We have indeed come a long way since the
passing of the Commonwealth Franchise Act
in 1902, when Australia became the first
country in the world to give women the right
to vote and to stand for federal parliament.
However, it was another 41 years before the
first woman was to be elected.
Unfortunately, it was not until 1962 that
Australia bestowed the same rights on all of
our Indigenous men and women. Today I
acknowledge the traditional owners of this
land where we stand, the Ngunnawal people,
and I pay tribute to all Indigenous people of
Australia. For the tragedy suffered by them
and their ancestors I am truly sorry, as are
the 55,000 people with whom I marched in
Adelaide on that long weekend in June 2000.
More than 240,000 people around Australia
walked for reconciliation with our Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people. It is a
shame that reconciliation has not progressed
as it could have, and we now know that as a
nation it will not reflect kindly on us in the
history books. The problems facing our Indigenous
people are generational, and the
sorrow immense.
As a young girl living in the workingclass
northern suburbs of Adelaide, I was not
aware of the suffering of our own Indigenous
people. I thought life was pretty good. I cannot
remember ever thinking that some had
more rights than others or that the colour of
your skin could determine your value in society,
because I was living in a community
where everyone was born equal. After all, we
had these feelings expressed when our parish
priest came to dinner every second Friday
night. We had no reason to doubt that his
words were not reflected in the actions of our
government, our society or our own community.
It was not long before I learnt about the
injustices in our world: people starving in
famine stricken countries; people persecuted
for their beliefs and the colour of their skin;
people in despair suffering from the tragedies
of wars that should never have been fought;
people having returned from wars, all but
forgotten; people, including young children,
detained behind barbed wire fences; people
discriminated against because of cultural
differences, gender differences, sexual preferences
and physical differences; and people
in our community battling to have their culture
recognised and valued, make ends meet,
pay the bills, put food on the table and keep a
roof over their head. How the innocence of
childhood quietly fades away.
Along with my sisters and brothers I attended
the local state primary school, where
there was a diversity of cultural backgrounds.
From here, we went on to the local
state high school, at the completion of which
I benefited from the Whitlam government’s
policy to broaden access to the tertiary education
system. The Whitlam Labor government’s
abolition of tuition fees and the introduction
of the means-tested tertiary education
scheme enabled many in our community
to access higher education. The reduction of
the financial disincentives on students recognised
the importance of education for all for
the future growth of Australia as an economy
and as a society, and it was a system by
which many in this chamber benefited. It is a
long way from today’s full-fee cost of up to
$65,000 for an education degree, $114,000
for a law degree and $208,000 for a degree
in medicine. Access to education should be
for all, not just the wealthy. Without the initiatives
of the Whitlam Labor government,
tertiary education would have been beyond
my reach as, coming from a family of six
children, we just would not have been able to
afford it.
Education really is a window to the world.
Through education comes knowledge and
opportunity, and all people should have the
opportunity to access good quality education
at all levels—as children, as youth and as
adults—to enable them to develop and fully
realise their potential throughout their lifetime.
It is for these reasons I chose a career
as a teacher, where I thought I could make a
difference, where I could impact in a positive
way on the lives of others. So, at the age of
20, I began my teaching career and became a
member of the South Australian Institute of
Teachers, now known as the Australian Education
Union. I soon learnt that teachers
commit to their students in providing the best
education possible, often against an adverse
background of social, physical and time obstacles.
It was my view that, in facing the
reality of where and who we are, our place in
the world and what we believe in, we are
able to gather round us those people who
share our ideals and together work towards a
common goal. For me, that was to work towards
achieving a society where there is justice,
fairness and equity; a just and tolerant
society which protects the rights and freedoms
of all.
For these reasons, at the age of 21 I joined
the Australian Labor Party. I was elected a
sub-branch delegate to the ALP state convention,
enrolled in the newly credited labour
studies course at Adelaide College of Advanced
Education, became the teachers union
delegate at my school and was elected to
the teachers delegation of the United Trades
and Labour Council. Seven years on, sitting
in the staff room of an Adelaide northeastern
suburbs school, I opened my letter of
transfer from the state education department
only to be notified that my new appointment
would be at the very same state primary
school I had attended as child. I had gone
full circle; maybe it was time for a career
change.
I had long believed in the importance of
literacy levels being a barrier to opportunity
for many, particularly for those in disadvantaged
groups. With this as catalyst, I applied
for, and was successful in being granted, a
special secondment by the education department
to the Advertiser, the new Murdoch
acquired South Australia daily newspaper.
Newspapers were concerned that with new
technology children would stop reading and
rely only on visual and audio news presentations.
They wanted to secure newspaper
readers for the future. The education department
was concerned about literacy levels in
our schools, particularly through the high
school years, and saw newspapers as an adult
means of getting our young people in schools
to read as well as keeping them informed
about what was going on in the world and
up-to-date with media education.
With the support of newspaper editors and
the department, I developed a number of
education initiatives targeting those in primary
school through to university years. In
the evenings I attended the University of
South Australia, where I completed a Bachelor
of Education majoring in communication
studies. As my role in the media developed, I
resigned from the education department, was
employed by the Advertiser and joined the
Australian Journalists Association, which
now forms part of the Media, Entertainment
and Arts Alliance. As a member of the house
committee I became involved in issues affecting
our daily working lives, including the
fight against News Ltd’s introduction of the
controversial non-union contracts. With encouragement
from my journalist colleagues
and the leadership of the union, I filled the
journalist industrial officer vacancy in the
South Australian and Northern Territory
branch of the alliance. Within a couple of
years I was elected as the branch assistant
secretary and then branch secretary of the
union, where I worked representing the professional and industrial interests of my
members until I was elected last year as a
Labor senator for South Australia. This is
just a glimpse of the experiences that I bring
with me to this chamber.
Now, in my new position, I continue to
acknowledge the important role of a diverse
media in a healthy democracy. The media, as
the fourth estate, has many responsibilities—
the responsibility to report, to question, to
scrutinise and to investigate. Quality journalism
is vital to preserve and enhance the values
of democracy. In a parliament where the
government holds the majority in both
houses, where the usual practices of scrutiny
and investigation are under threat, the media,
as the defender of public interest, must be
vigilant. The media plays a crucial role by
ensuring that many voices and opinions can
be heard by the Australian community. Experience
suggests that diversity of opinion,
comment and news sources is better delivered
through diversity of media ownership.
In Australia, the rules currently in place, although
not perfect, serve their purpose of
preventing further concentration of what
many already consider to be a highly concentrated
media industry. For these reasons, any
future changes to government policy should
protect and promote diversity of media ownership
in Australia.
This brings me to another issue of great
importance to many Australians—that of our
national broadcaster. For close to two-thirds
of the budget of the average Australian
commercial television station, the ABC manages
and produces content for two television
stations, four national radio networks, 60
local radio stations, three digital internet radio
services, Radio Australia and ABC
Online. In recent years, the people’s ABC
has seen a significant reduction in the delivery
of locally produced news and current
affairs programs in both radio and television
in city and regional areas. The current review
of the funding adequacy and efficiency of the
ABC must not be a wasted opportunity to
make things right. With the exception of Friday
nights, weeknight locally produced and
presented current affairs programs have disappeared.
In some regional areas, locally
produced radio bulletins have been dropped.
In some major cities, locally produced weekend
radio news after 1 pm has been dropped
and replaced by a national bulletin. The end
result is reduced local coverage and content.
The Australian content obligations currently
in place for commercial television stations
is 55 per cent Australian content between
6 am and midnight. This includes
drama, news and current affairs. ABC television
is currently broadcasting only 29 per
cent of Australian content across all genres.
For the commercial stations, the obligation to
broadcast new Australian drama is close to
200 hours per year. Last year, ABC television
broadcast only 43 hours and is this year
tracking somewhere between 14 and 20
hours of new Australian adult drama for the
year.
Adequate funding would go some way to
addressing this issue. It would enable the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation to deliver
sufficient first release Australian television
drama, documentaries and children’s
programs. It would enable it to deliver enhanced
levels of local television and radio
news, current affairs and sports coverage for
people living in metropolitan, rural and remote
areas. In its charter, the ABC is required
to broadcast ‘programs that contribute
to a sense of national identity and inform and
entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of,
the Australian community’. For the ABC to
continue to produce high-quality programs
and increase its local content and production,
it must have a stable and adequate funding
base. Of 17 countries surveyed by the OECD
about levels of public broadcasting funding,
Australia came in 16th.
Our continent is important to us all, and as
a nation we have a responsibility to future
generations—to our children and their children
and beyond. A recent government report
on climate change risk and vulnerability estimates
that Australia could be two degrees
Celsius warmer by 2030 and six degrees Celsius
warmer by 2070. According to the report,
a further two degrees Celsius increase
would be devastating for Australia, with
more heatwaves and bushfires, extended
droughts, reduced rainfall in southern Australia
and extensive damage to the Great Barrier
Reef. Like many South Australians
growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, a camping
holiday on the banks of the River Murray
was part of my childhood. We have since
recognised the significance, both environmentally
and economically, of the mighty
Murray River. We are aware of the costs salinity
has on infrastructure, agriculture and
our environment. These are the just some of
the reasons that Australia needs to meet our
national and international environmental responsibilities.
There is no doubt that those who know me
will expect that in this my first speech in
federal parliament I will speak against this
government’s widely publicised agenda for
changes to our industrial relations system—
and I do not intend to disappoint them. My
10 years as a union official, and more than
16 years of work before this, stand me in
good stead to make a statement on workplace
issues. The proposed changes to the industrial
relations legislation flagged by this government
are not in the best interests of Australian
workers or their families. While productivity
is an issue that must be addressed,
it should not be at the expense of the quality
of our family lives and values.
The many workers I have represented in
the past 10 years come from different and
diverse walks of life—from journalists, photographers,
artists, camera operators, actors,
theatrical technicians and members of our
symphony orchestras to cinema workers,
events ticket sellers, workshop stage trades
people and front-of-house workers. Whether
they come through university, TAFE, a
cadetship or on-the-job training, there is
something they all have in common—a need
to be valued for their contribution in the
workplace, rewarded by a fair day’s pay for a
fair day’s work, and fair and equitable working
conditions. They want a workplace free
of bullying, intimidation and discrimination,
where employment is secure and on-going
and where family friendly conditions, including
paid holidays and sick leave are guaranteed;
a workplace where employees are adequately
compensated for overtime and shift
work, and where they have reasonable notice
of their rostered hours; a workplace where
employees have the right to bargain collectively
for decent wages and conditions; a
workplace where any agreement will have
the no disadvantage test applied; and a
workplace where employees cannot be unfairly
dismissed.
The reality, even today, under the current
Workplace Relations Act, is that the bargaining
power of the employer is greatly superior
to that of the employee. We must view any
changes to the industrial legislation with this
in mind. There will be no equality of bargaining
power between an employer and an
individual employee when it comes to Australian
workplace agreements, because it appears
likely that both protective institutions,
the Australian Industrial Relations Commission
and the unions, may be removed from
the process. The extreme changes expected
to be pushed through the Senate by this government
mean that, for Australian workers
and their families, the future is uncertain.
There is however certainty in this fact: Labor
will take up the fight on behalf of Australian
workers and their families.
There are many other areas I would like to
have addressed in this my first speech but
they will have to be addressed as future opportunities
arise. One does not arrive at the
‘House on the Hill’ without the support of
many, and today I thank the people of South
Australia and the South Australian branch of
the Australian Labor Party. My special
thanks go to friends Robyn Geraghty, the
state member for Torrens, and her husband
Bob; Terry Roberts, state Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs and Correctional Services; the
South Australian branches of the Communications
Electrical and Plumbing Union and
the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union
as well as the other South Australian unions
who gave me their support; and Christopher
Warren, the Alliance Federal Secretary; and
South Australian and Northern Territory Secretary,
Shauna Black.
I place on record my thanks to Walkley
Award winning journalist and journalism
educator, the late Julie Duncan, who was a
great inspiration in my journalistic development.
Thank you to Debra Mewett, who has
so competently set up my offices in Adelaide
and Canberra, and to my other staff, Rachel
and James.
I thank my parents, Janice and Johnny, my
sisters and brothers, Russell’s parents, Pamela
and Kevin, my colleagues, union members
and friends for their advice and support
over the years. To Russell, my closest friend,
my partner from high school days: I thank
you for your dedication to our young son,
your encouragement, your support, your love
and your humour. To you and Che, I trust
that time will judge the sacrifices as a family
that we make, by me taking my place in this
parliament, as being worthy. Thank you.
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