Memorandum of Understanding and the Fourth Norfolk Women's Forum

I have received requests for copies of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) entered into between the Commonwealth of Australia and the Norfolk Island Government re Financial Assistance for Essential Services for Norfolk Island. Readers will recall the Chief Minister reporting to the House on 1 December 2010 that the Commonwealth had agreed to provide certain funding for this purpose until the end of the current financial year, subject to the parties formulating “a detailed agreement which would set out the terms and conditions under which the funding would be provided.” The next step is the formulation of the funding agreement.

The MOU, which was tabled in the Assembly by the Chief Minister on 1 December, can be accessed on the front page of the Norfolk Telecom website www.ni.net.nf under the heading New Links. If you are unable to access a computer please phone 22003 and request a copy.

The 4^th Norfolk Women’s Forum (NWF) will be held this Sunday evening, the 12^th of December, at Governor’s Lodge commencing at 7 pm and an invitation has been extended to all Members of the Legislative Assembly to attend. The concept of the NWF came from two initiatives - the first was the International Women’s Day event in 2007; followed by Mrs Vicky Jack, when Government Minister responsible for social services in an earlier Assembly, bringing together women from all walks of life on Norfolk, seeking their views, concerns and suggested solutions to issues that they felt were important to our community. The Forum’s aim is to give all women a voice and I quote “to see that all issues put forward are documented and that solutions are then achieved or worked toward.”

It is understood that Senator Kate Lundy and Ms Gai Brodtmann MP, ALP member for the ACT seat of Canberra are visiting the Island over the weekend and will attend the Forum as will Mr Robert Patch who returns to the Island for his third visit arriving Sunday.

The role of women in politics is always a key item on the agenda for the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Group (the CWPG) and I as Speaker of our Legislative Assembly Member am the Norfolk Island delegate on the Australian Branch of the CWPG. The annual meeting of the CWPG international body is timed to coincide with the annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and this year those meetings were held in Nairobi Kenya. I was interested today to receive a copy of a paper presented at the Nairobi CWPG meeting by the Hon Helen Coonan MP from the Australian Federal Parliament titled “Reform of Political Parties – Working Towards Democracy”. With this week’s focus on the Norfolk Women’s Forum I thought I would share with you some interesting statistics on female representation in Australian Government mentioned in Ms Coonan’s paper and I quote -

“As women in Federal Parliament it is pleasing to see that the proportion of women in the Parliament of Australia has risen over the past ten or so years. In 1999, 22 per cent of members of the House of Representatives were women and 32 per cent of Senators were female. In the beginning of 2010, the representation of women had risen to 28 per cent in the House of Representatives and 35 per cent in the Senate.”

The representation of women in the Thirteenth Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island is of course 33 per cent!

Issued from the Office of the Speaker on 10 December 2010