At the recent Australian Local Government Women’s Association (ALGWA) national conference in Ipswich, a number of councils were awarded for their work in redressing the gender imbalance in local government.
Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) in Queensland was one of the councils to receive an inaugural Bronze Award in the ALGWA 50:50 Vision Councils for Gender Equity Program.
ALGWA President Ms Kathy Bensted said that, “The quality of the applications was outstanding. And these councils are to be congratulated for leading the way in working towards increasing representation of women in senior management roles and as elected representatives.”
Ms Bensted went on to say that, “In many ways, local government offers outstanding opportunities for women and they account for about 52 percent of the council work force nationally. However, only around seven percent of CEOs, 20 percent in senior management and 19 percent of Mayors are women, so the statistics speak for themselves.”
Former SDRC Councillor, Mally McMurtrie, accepted the award on behalf of SDRC, which was presented by the Federal Member for Blair, Shayne Newman.
In presenting the awards, Mr Newman congratulated each of the winning councils and noted that they served as fine examples for councils that had not already enrolled in the program.
He emphasised the commitment of the Commonwealth Government to gender equity in local government, and reminded the audience that local government could not hope to represent the community it serves, or meet future staffing challenges, without greater diversity.
All councils are encouraged to participate in the program, which was originally endorsed by the Local Government and Planning Ministers Council (LGPMC) in February 2010.
