More than 70 rural women from Gunnedah, Manilla, Tamworth and Glen Innes VIEW Clubs gathered at the Services Club, Glen Innes, to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March. They also came to hear a keynote address from the Member for Monaro, The Hon Nichole Overall MLC, a member of The Nationals.
Nichole’s life has included some very significant first achievements: growing up in the Riverina she was the first member of her family to attend university and she was the first woman elected to hold the seat of Monaro. She was encouraged to run for Parliament by her friend and mentor, Bronwyn Taylor, former Deputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council.
In considering how women’s participation in public life has increased, Nichole noted that it is only one hundred years since the first woman was elected to the NSW Parliament. That trailblazer’s name was Millicent Preston-Stanley. She entered the Legislative Assembly in 1925, holding the seat of Eastern Suburbs for the ‘Nationalist’ Party. The first woman to be elected to the Legislative Council was Catherine Green in 1931, followed only two days later by Ellen Webster, both members of the ALP. Nichole is the 69th woman to be appointed to the Legislative Council.
Nichole told the audience that she sees politics as a vocation. Its purpose is to represent and serve the community, and her personal mission is to do everything she possibly can to improve the lives of the people of NSW and to make a lasting impact on the lives of people living in rural and regional Australia.
In her very well received remarks, Nichole described regional women as the backbone of their communities and complimented VIEW Clubs on embodying the essence of International Women’s Day. She also observed that: “Supporting and uplifting each other should not be limited to one day. It should be everyday.” She noted and congratulated VIEW for raising more than $40 million dollars over its 65 year history – vital funds for The Smith Family directed toward providing financial support and empowering the next generation of men and women through education.
Earlier in the day Aletia Norman, VIEW Zone National Councillor, outlined the changes in women’s lives since VIEW was set up in 1960, at Balgowlah Heights in Sydney. In that era newspapers still actually asked unbelievable questions about women, for example, was it a waste of time for girls to stay and finish high school? Should mothers go to work? At that time there had never been a woman Governor, nor a Prime Minister and few politicians, judges, pilots, and women were not often seen in other professional trades traditionally deemed men’s domains.
Things have progressed for women generally since then, though at a somewhat leisurely pace. According to the World Economic Forum, full gender economic parity will not be achieved until 2158 – roughly five generations from now, no doubt inspiring the theme of Accelerate Action for International Women’s Day 2025.
In its 65 year history VIEW has maintained a strong voice on many issues designed to benefit the community, such as random breath testing, mammography screening that could be accessed by rural and regional women, the use of video evidence in court to spare victims of abuse and neglect from testifying in court, the use of subtitles on television to increase access for the deaf community (a benefit which stretches to the wider community) and auditory signals at pedestrian crossings to improve accessibility for the visually impaired. Current issues of concern being addressed include the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation, national education standards and mental health programs for schoolchildren.
The key takeaway from the speakers at the lunch was that change is possible through leaders, communities and groups working together, which can be summarised in the closing words of The Hon Nichole Overall, “we all need to strive for a fairer, stronger and more equal future”.
