Australia eyes helping PNG women in economic activities

 AUSTRALIA is committed to providing more economic opportunities for Papua New Guinea women, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says.

She said this yesterday after a parliamentary roundtable with a number of leading Papua New Guinean women leaders, businesswomen, public servants and private sector executives.

“We discussed a range of challenges, but also opportunities for us to work together, deliver on three objectives that I have as Australia’s first female foreign affairs minister,” Bishop told reporters after the meeting.

“That is, in our region, Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific, we want to empower women to take part in the economy of their various nations including Papua New Guinea.

“We want to ensure that Papua New Guinea gets the full benefit of the women in the community so they can take part in business activities, they can take part in the economies of the different provinces, and particularly have access to land and other agricultural assets.

“We talked about women in leadership positions.

“I noted that there’s an increase in the number of women in parliament, in the law and justice sector, in the public sector. 

“And we talked about opportunities to increase that number, because the more women that are involved in society, the more cohesive society will become.

“Thirdly, we talked about the issue of violence against women.

“This is an issue that occurs around the world but it is utterly unacceptable. And so we talked about ways that we can educate the population and focus on initiatives to reduce incidences of violence against women.

“All in all, it was a very productive discussion.

“I enjoyed their company, I appreciated their feedback, and we have a number of areas that we’ll continue to work together to get better outcomes for the communities in Papua New Guinea.”