Andy, Kathleen and Ian discuss International Women’s Day.

Kathleen from ‘unite‘ urges that there be more goal-oriented feminism including fair  wages and conditions. Spoke about the Women’s strike in the US. Need to get early childhood educators paid a fair wage.

Interviews
Andy interviews Kerriann Dear from the Working Women’s Service (QWWS) which has provided a women’s only service dealing with fairwork and gender sensitivities in Brisbane for the past 22 years. QWWS deals with unfair dismissal, discrimination in pregnancy, sexual harassment at work. Their funding of $500K from the Federal government has been cut on the eve of international women’s day 2017. The state government has stepped in to provide remedial funding till the end of the financial year. QWWS is presently looking for alternative models to make ends meet such as going into partnership with another organisation.
The service had a one day strike outside the Queensland Law Society building at 144 Adelaide Street Brisbane where they are housed. They closed their phone line and directed calls to the Federal Minister for women, Michaela Cash, in protest at the loss of funding for this standalone women’s service. QWWS is conducting an ongoing campaign to obtain resources instead of a lip service.

Andy interviews Hannah McGlade, a Noongar human rights lawyer and academic from Western Australia. Hannah describes the lack of respect, self-determination and sovereignty as major issues for aboriginal women. Hannah speaks of high rates of incarceration and high rates of removal of children from aboriginal people’s care. Andy asks whether the Northern Territory intervention was successful in addressing sexual violence against aboriginal women. Hannah acknowledges the voices of aboriginal women suffering domestic violence in the NT but says federal governments actions were not successful because the policies introduced were not based on the the empowerment of aboriginal women.
There is a national non-government organisation called SNAICC  which has been set up to fight the policy of ‘permanency‘ which is the permanent removal of aboriginal children from their families and their culture. So many children are being removed that it is bordering on genocide. Her answer to this social policy is to embrace human rights in this country from the bottom up. Hannah McGlade has written a book and thesis about this called Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal Children and Human Rights.

Discussion about the limitations of liberal feminism. Discussion of working class issues like unequal conditions for women in the workplace. Casualisation and conditions for women. The personal is the political has been taken too far.

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Playlist