Australia: Canberra Community Consultation Event

CANBERRA COMMUNITY CONSULTATION EVENT

With Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination.

Have your say on building a fair and equal society for women and men in Australia.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and the ACT Human Rights Commission invite you join HREOC's new Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination, Elizabeth Broderick, for a community consultation.

This consultation is part of Commissioner Broderick's national Listening
Tour. The Listening Tour is an opportunity for people all over Australia to make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them.

Tuesday 5 February 2008
Theo Notaras Multicultural Centre 2nd floor, North Building 180 London Circuit, Canberra City
12:00 - 2:00 pm

A light lunch will be provided
RSVP by Monday 4 February to Jorge Kapeen, ACT Human Rights Commission
02 6205 2222 or email: human.rights-at-act.gov.au

HREOC have established three female-focused themes for the tour:

* economic independence for women
* work and family balance across the life cycle, and
* freedom from discrimination, harassment and violence

Discussion of other issues will also be welcome. Information
collected from this consultation will be used to inform the agenda for the Commissioner's 5 year term.

We would urge anyone who cares about men's and boys' health and wellbeing to come along to these events to remind the new Commissioner that her responsibilities cover two sexes!

We would encourage you to make some of the following points (for a bit of background information on men and work-life balance click here (.pdf file)):

• Males have much higher illness, injury, accident and death rates and die 5 years earlier than females, yet research funding for male health is less than one-third of that for female health
• Males suicide at almost four times the rate of females. More males kill themselves each year than the entire Australian road toll
• More than twice as many males as females experience work-related injuries and illnesses, and over ninety percent of work-related deaths are males
• Young men are three times as likely as young women to be victims of violence, however, there are no public health campaigns to address this very serious issue
• Men are also victims of intimate partner abuse, however, there are no support services for these men, nor treatment services for abusive women
• Boys in Australia are much more likely to drop out of school than girls. In NSW, the difference between boys' and girls' average Tertiary Entrance Rank is almost 20%. Males currently make up just 37% of university graduates
• In Australia today, only women have reproductive rights. Upon becoming pregnant, a woman can choose to have the baby, or have an abortion, or put the baby up for adoption. A man has no choice whether to become a father or even to be notified that he has become a father
• Men are more likely to be convicted and receive longer sentences for the same crimes, compared to their female counterparts
• Following family court proceedings, children are far more likely to be given little or no time with their father than they are with their mother
• The current inequitable parental leave schemes, favouring mothers, reinforce fathers in the traditional 'breadwinner' role rather than supporting them as being 'hands-on' dads (which all the research shows gives better outcomes for children and their parents)
• Australian women are responsible for spending 90 cents in every household dollar

Please circulate this notice and the attached, printable flyer, to your contacts in or near Canberra. You can also download a copy from here (.pdf file).

More information about how to contribute to the Listening Tour
will be posted at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/events/ in coming weeks, along with details of other events as the HREOC team make their way around the country. Can't make it to the consultation? Please post your thoughts on HREOCs online blog.

Kind regards,

Greg