Thursday, 6 March 2025
Government House
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of the land on which Government House stands, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. I extend that respect to the Elders of all parts of our State from which you travel.

In paying my respect to traditional custodians, I particularly want to pay respect to the Aboriginal women of our community. As I travel around the State, I see Aboriginal women taking the lead in communities, in organisations, in schools. They are literally and metaphorically the lifeblood of their communities but one of their great gifts to the wider community is the influence of their quiet wisdom.

I always like to think about the theme that is chosen for International Women’s Day. Last year’s theme ‘Count her in: Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress’^[1] brought into frame an understanding of why it is important that there is equitable opportunity and equitable reward for all women.

That theme and this year’s theme, ‘March Forward: For ALL Women and Girls’^[2], are particularly important in a year when in some places it is apparently no longer permissible to talk about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. And if it is not permissible to talk about it, it is not possible to understand why an equitable place for women in their particular ecosystem—their community, their profession, in their education, in their health—is fundamental to a better society overall.

However, because it is easy for acronyms and for themes to simply become labels or slogans, rather than building a body of understanding and action, it is important to interrogate in any one year: why that theme and why now?

This year’s theme reminds us that there is strength in numbers, that we all need to be together on this. In many ways it is a call to action.

Whilst everyone here probably has a personal experience which underpins why we need to do this together, the global picture is captured by data from the World Economic Forum that “at the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now to reach full gender parity”^[3]—and, I add, that is assuming that we don’t go backwards.

Of that, I would suggest there is a real danger, as too often one finds in a more connected technological world the opposite of the good that technology and social media can bring: remarks demeaning women’s sport and women’s health are just a couple of recent instances.

A few years ago, I was startled, indeed angered, by a comment made by a former judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that it would take another 50 years for women to achieve gender equality in law. As I said to another judge of that Court, I’d been in the law for nearly half a century already and whilst the position of women had improved in that time in leaps and bounds to wait for another 50 years for full equality would be intolerable.

The gender pay gap figures published last week continue to highlight that there remains a long way to go.^[4]

Those two examples of themselves indicate why we need to ‘March Forward for ALL Women and Girls’, and it is the reason why you are here today, because across your careers, your contribution to communities, your advocacy, you have already engaged with this year’s theme—indeed you are the living embodiment of it.

As I’ve intimated, you have done so despite many impediments along the way, including unconscious bias, structural inequities, and outmoded stereotypes—too-often placed between women and their aspirations; between their abilities and the opportunities they are afforded.

So congratulations, because today is a day when you rightly receive the plaudits and recognition you so richly deserve. There is no doubt that you will have influenced and inspired other women along the way, made their path easier and shown them what is possible.

You are drawn from every corner of our State—from Armidale to Walgett; from the cities and the regions; from our coast to the inland. You are researchers, communicators, and entrepreneurs; impactful changemakers addressing and supporting victims of sexual, family, and domestic violence; advocates and on-the-ground at-the-coalface supporters, connectors, and builders of community; educators, mentors, and inspiring examples.

And so, in this important week leading up to International Women’s Day on Saturday, when we shine a light on all the incredible contributions women make to our State, can I say how proud we are of you: each of you is an absolute champion.

[1] ‘Michele Bullock, Governor of RBA, Headlines International Women’s Day 2024‘, UN Women Australia website, 2 February 2024, available here.

[2] ‘International Women’s Day 2025’, UN Women Australia website, available here

[3] International Women’s Day website, available here

[4] 2023-24 Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report, Australian Government Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), March 2025, available here