Supporting women to succeed

12 November 2020

Sarah Courtney MP

2020-21 Budget: Supporting women to succeed

The Tasmanian Liberal Government is committed to creating a more inclusive Tasmania that empowers and enables women and girls to fully participate in our economic, social, political and community life.

The 2020-21 State Budget delivers $2.5 million over two years to develop a statewide program to support women to participate more broadly across our economy.

To achieve this, we will work with peak industry bodies and skills and training providers to support women to train and enter roles in industry, as well as support employers to help young workers develop the skills they need to succeed, shifting community and employer perceptions of traditionally male-dominated industries.

This builds on the strong relationships that have already been built with peak bodies through our partnerships to deliver leadership scholarships to women in the industries of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, building, construction and mining. We are also investing a further $400,000 over two years for measures to enhance industry liaison and to develop leadership pipelines for women in these fields.

The Budget also includes ongoing funding support for the Tasmanian Women’s Strategy and to support scholarships for women’s leadership development.

These policies have helped increase the participation of women in senior roles of the public service, as well as increased the representation of women on Government Boards.

As at 30 June 2020, the percentage of board positions held by women was 46.4 per cent – an increase of 37 per cent in the ratio of women board members, and an increase of 12.6 percentage points in the number of board positions held by women since 2015. The ratio of women in paid positions is even higher at 49.4 per cent.

We are working to take the learnings from this achievement within Government, to support participation within other industries, particularly in regional areas.