Joan Kirner: representing the interests of women?

November 16, 1994
Issue 

Comment by Vannessa Hearman

MELBOURNE — The choice of former Labor premier Joan Kirner as chair of this year's Reclaim the Night rally here ignores the anti-woman policies enacted by her government.

In her speech, Kirner attacked Kennett's policies of closing down schools and cutting funding to the welfare sector. However, Kirner's government was committed to privatisation and spending cuts in education, health and public transport. These cuts impacted tremendously on women — those traditionally reliant on the public sector. For the Reclaim the Night collective to have chosen Kirner as the rally's chair and main speaker was to downplay the policies of her government.

Kirner's privatisation program in 1992 rivalled that of the Greiner Liberal government in NSW. State-owned enterprises were subjected to "corporatisation", with their running modelled on private enterprise. This was usually a precursor to full-scale privatisation, as in Thatcher's Britain.

At the State Electricity Commission, 5000 jobs were lost between 1989 and 1992. Other enterprises which were targeted included the State Insurance Office, the State Bank of Victoria and the Gas and Fuel Corporation. According to the Victorian Public Service Federation, 2200 state government properties were up for sale in 1992, and 31,000 jobs were shed in the three years to 1992.

Contracting out of services was rampant in the public sector. Women workers were affected by this privatisation drive through job losses and increased charges for services. The trend initiated by Kirner was continued and extended by the Kennett government.

Spending cuts hit hard in welfare and social justice, areas affecting women in the roles of service users and providers. In 1991, welfare agencies lobbied Kirner to push for a loan of $500 million from the federal government to cope with increased demand due to the recession. Instead, Kirner asked for $300 million to cover the cost of redundancy packages for 10,000 public sector jobs to be axed.

The Poverty Action Program (PAP), a funding program for community poverty and unemployment groups, suffered a 44% cut in 1991. Those affected included the Public Tenants' Union, Low Income People's Network, Aboriginal Advancement League and the Vietnamese Community Association. Kirner's government did not support state-funded, home-based child-care workers, who were paid as low as $2 an hour, when they sought recognition as workers under the award system.

In this situation, women's cheap labour was utilised in place of providing professionally run and state-funded child-care, which would be affordable for users and at the same time respect the rights of workers. The last years of Kirner's administration coincided with the economic recession, and the cuts in the welfare sector exacerbated the recession's impact.

In education, $125 million was cut in 1991, following a $105 million cut in 1990. Kirner's record on the environment also left much to be desired. The expansion of the Mobil refinery in Williamstown, Kirner's electorate, was given the go-ahead in 1992, despite widespread concern from the residents. The Coode Island chemical disaster in 1991 highlighted the lack of accountability of the chemical industry in Victoria. The current freeways program of the Kennett government was inherited from Kirner's plans to construct the Western Bypass and with it, the closure of the Upfield rail line.

Kirner's policies didn't benefit the majority of women. Violence against women includes broader forms of violence than sexual violence. It includes denial of access to economic resources, denial of the right to a livable environment, of good public transport, education and social services. Kirner's policies were detrimental to women and paved the way for further attacks by Kennett's Liberal government.

It was hypocritical to allow Joan Kirner to chair a rally calling for an end to violence against women when her government was, at least partially, responsible for perpetrating it.

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