23 September 2014

, Minister for Women

New Report on Tasmanian Women and Girls

The Liberal Government is committed to tackling issues facing women and girls in Tasmania.

A key action under the Tasmanian Women's Plan 2013-1018 was to improve the data available on how Tasmanian women and girls are faring in key areas.

To build this evidence-base to support the Tasmanian Women's Plan, I today released the first biennial Women and Girls in Tasmania Report.

The report provides a data snapshot of the status of women and girls in Tasmania as of 2013 and provides a baseline for future measurement of change.

With the release of this report, we now have the opportunity to track the progress and improvements made through the Tasmanian Women's Plan and identify where more work is needed.

While in areas such as education, alcohol consumption and life expectancy Tasmanian women are faring better than men, there are still significant challenges facing women.

The report found that:

• 86 per cent of reported victims of sexual assault were female.
• 31.5 per cent of assaults against women were perpetrated by the victim's partner.
• Females on average achieve better literacy and numeracy results and are more likely to complete undergraduate or post-graduate degrees.
• Sole female parents were 16.4 per cent less likely to participate in the labour force than sole male parents;
• Tasmania had the lowest gender pay equity gap in the nation but female workers still earned on average $116.80 less than males each week.

We must continue to tackle the serious issue of sexual assaults and domestic violence against women and girls.

The Liberal Government is working with the Commonwealth Government to develop the Second Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, as well as uniting with the Commonwealth and other States and Territories to jointly fund the new Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS).

We are also implementing strategies under Taking Action: Tasmania's Primary Prevention Strategy to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children.

To further protect women and children, this government will invest an additional $924,000 over 4 years into preventing sexual assault and increasing after hours sexual assault services.

The Government is also committed to continuing to tackle all areas where women still experience barriers to participating equally in society.

The Report released today is an important milestone which will inform policy development and help us to track the progress of efforts to ensure Tasmanian women and girls have access to the best opportunities our society has to offer. The full Report can be downloaded from www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/csrt/

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