Sen. Katy Gallagher Speaks on ABC Canberra Radio 29 October

ROSS SOLLY, HOST: Senator Katy Gallagher, of course, a long time out of ACT politics but I'm sure she still keeps a watchful eye over what's going on. Good morning to you, Senator Gallagher, what do you make of all this?

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Good morning, Ross. Well, it's got some similarities to some of the things we're seeing up here federally. It just shows a party room in disarray, a Liberal party room in disarray, I think. And they need to get focused back on the job that they've been elected to do, which is focused on the people of Canberra.

SOLLY: Just on the sitting date, which is what this all came about. Can you explain to us, having been in the Legislative Assembly, why the Legislative Assembly might want to reduce the number of sitting days? Is it that they don't have enough work to do? I know that, you know, you're not part of the Assembly these days, but you were a Chief Minister once. I mean, why would you reduce the number of sitting days?

GALLAGHER: Look, I'm just not across that at all. I haven't seen the arguments for or against. I would say as MLAs though that you're just as busy on non-sitting days as sitting days. So I don't think people should think that it means if you're not sitting, that you're not working. My experience in the Assembly was, you know, you're often busier on non-sitting days because you're out in the community and dealing with other things. But to be honest, I have not seen or anything about sitting calendar. First thing I knew was when Elizabeth Lee and Peter Cain were being booted.

SOLLY: Yeah, just on that someone says, 'Peter Cain is a roadblock to change and Elizabeth Lee is a sore loser. Kick them out and move forward,' says this texter. Let's talk about, Katy Gallagher, this review you did. You asked for Canberrans, especially women, to come forward and to tell you whether they felt safe in Canberra. And if not, why not? Now, you're releasing the results of that review today. You had more than 2000, in fact 2500 or thereabouts, women who contacted you, which, in itself, suggests that this is an issue which is front and centre in the minds of a lot of women and young girls in Canberra.

GALLAGHER: Yeah, so we did have a good response to this, and really it's putting this out there to go back to all those women and others to say, look, this is what women have told us. And so, I think it's important to say that most women, about 76 per cent of women who filled the survey out, said they feel safe most or all of the time. So, I don't want to say that this is, you know, I don't want to pretend or over-exaggerate the findings. But some of the safety concerns are very widespread. And, you know, it's clear that a lot of women change their behaviour or their plans based on how they how safe they feel. And particularly for young women, you know, a lot of the young women who are sort of in that 15 to 24 aged group, take safety precautions often every time they leave the home. And I think for most women this won't come as a shock because, you know, it's kind of inbuilt into all of our behaviours from when we're young to right through our life. We always think about, you know, where are we parking, who are we going to be with, how are we leaving, is this safe to walk down this path, should we go somewhere else? So, I think it's sort of factored into how we conduct ourselves. But for someone who's trying to be working in this space and improving the situation around women's safety, I think the results of this are pretty confronting, because they're telling me that, you know, girls of generations from young to old are still feeling quite unsafe when they move around the city.

SOLLY: Yeah, Canberra women avoiding public transport after dark, abandoning exercise routines. I mean, these are things that I never give a second thought to as a bloke, and I can only imagine how difficult it must be. What's the solution, Katy Gallagher? I mean, we've known that these are some issues out there. I noticed that the National Capital Authority are fixing up some lights, some better lighting around the lake, which is a good starting point, I guess. But what are the solutions?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think it's a mix of things. So, there was a lot of women who called for continued focus on education campaigns and addressing attitudes towards women, which is definitely part of some of the work that Tanya Plibersek and I, and other women's ministers, including Dr Paterson, are doing here in the ACT. So how do we actually deal with the big cause of a lot of this, which is attitudes towards women by men, and how do we change that behaviour? But there are some practical things I think we can do pretty quickly and I've met with the NCA, I've written to the Chief Minister, around looking at infrastructure. Which is how do we make our places more safe so women feel able to use the public transport, as you say, to go to walk to and from work, if they have to park their car far away, or if they want to engage in exercise in our beautiful nature parks. And I think a lot of some of that feedback was based on those experiences of the alleged attacks in Tuggeranong and in Mulligans Flat this year, which really kind of shook women, I think, about how and when they exercise, and for in one of those, at least, was during the day. So I think, you know, we need to think about all of those things. So, infrastructure is part of it. You know, there were calls from women in this survey to have more policing in in higher, you know, traffic areas like Braddon and Dickson. So, these are all things we can talk about, including with ACT policing, who make the decisions about where they deploy their resources.

SOLLY: Yes, I'm sure they'll come back and say, 'look, we're already stretched, we're trying to cover as much as we possibly can, but we're, you know, we don't have the resources to do so.' But it's obviously an issue that the women feel is being ignored a little bit, Katy Gallagher, is that fair to say that?

GALLAGHER: Look, I mean, when I think about Lake Burley Griffin for an example, I think the NCA has improved that lighting around the lake from when, you know, from the years that I've been walking or running around there - don't run anymore, walk around. You know, the lighting is much better in some places, particularly where it was extremely dark on the kind of Commonwealth Park side and Rond's Terrace. So I think things have been done, but the reality is, the results from this and from discussions I have with women's organisations and walking groups and things like that, that I've met with in the last few months, is that there's still a fair bit of work to be done to create safe spaces for women to move around the city. So I think it's a combination of all those things, and we need to stay focused on it, and certainly in the area of the Parliamentary Triangle, including the lake in that, you know, there is a responsibility for the Commonwealth there that I feel that, you know, I'll be able to focus on.

SOLLY: Alright, I'll be interesting to hear from listeners this morning, especially women, what would you like to see done to try and make things safer, or so that you could feel safer around our city and surrounding districts. One other quick question before I let you go, Katy Gallagher. Childcare is front and centre this week, and there have been calls now for a National Childcare Commissioner. The ACT Government today saying it might go it alone if it can't get the support it needs from the Feds on this. I mean, this is an issue front and centre right now, isn't it, that needs urgent action?

GALLAGHER: Yeah, totally, and Jason Clare and Jess Walsh have been doing a huge amount of work with early childhood ministers around the country based on some of the findings, including of the ABC's reporting. So there is a huge amount of work going on to improve safety in early education and care. You know, it's a top priority for the Government, we'll keep working away on it. There's, you know, obviously that huge amount of work that needs to be done about a National Educator Register, which will begin in February. And that's, you know, that is a huge undertaking that the Commonwealth is leading with states and territories, but there will be more in this space. I have no doubt.

SOLLY: All right, we will watch with interest. It needs to get done and get done quickly, one would think. Thank you very much, this morning. Thank you, Senator.

GALLAGHER: Thanks for covering the story, Ross, appreciate it.