Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, last Thursday I was privileged to attend the graduation of students from the Dream Again Mentoring program, a partnership of the Be Hers Foundation and TasTAFE, which supports women from refugee and migrant backgrounds to develop skills in sewing and retail cosmetics. You were there, Speaker, so too was the Leader of the Opposition and other members for Clark, Ms Haddad, Mr Vermey, and Hobart’s Deputy Lord Mayor, Dr Zelinda Sherlock.
Be Hers have raised millions of dollars for women who in other countries are fleeing from slavery, exploitation and domestic violence. Their Dream Again Mentoring program, which has run for a few years, has shifted the focus to migrant women here in Tasmania and it has also lifted those women’s skills, their hopes and their aspirations. Women like Aimen, a young mother of two who was there with her husband, and my friend’s, Sonya, mother who escaped, is a Hazaras woman who escaped Afghanistan many years ago.
As we know, unemployment and underemployment are significant issues for refugee and migrant women who are who are more likely to find it difficult to find work than their male counterparts. There’s a 2023 report by the Victorian state government that says that just 47.3 per cent of culturally and linguistically diverse women were able to secure work, compared to 69.5 per cent of men. There are complex and multifaceted reasons for this, including racial prejudice, being denied career advancement and mentoring opportunities, limited recognition of overseas qualifications and experience, prior trauma, lack of cultural safety and exposure to culturally motivated sexism in the workplace, and a greater likelihood of working casual, unsafe and exploitative roles.
The Be Hers Foundation has been working to create opportunities for refugee and migrant women in Tasmania and to empower them to enter the job market. It was clear that both students who had done the sewing or the cosmetics course had relished their experiences and had grown in confidence. You could just see it in their demeanour and in their faces during that course.
TAFE sewing teacher, Katrina, showed how keen the women had been. They took to the industrial sewing machines like ducks to water, didn’t want to take breaks nor leave at the end of the class. It was one of those situations where you could see for the cosmetics teacher and Katrina and mentors alike, that they got as much out of the program as the participants.
There was joy at this graduation, but the reality is that some of these women will not have the option of studying and learning when the minister, Mr Ellis, cuts these TAFE courses. With the Tasmanian Liberal government announcing cuts to TasTAFE, including 18 staff roles and cuts to the areas of design, screen and media, music, fashion, visual arts and lab technology, the future of this program is unclear. These women are the human faces of cuts to courses that seem expendable. This is the human cost, which is a travesty. The most vulnerable members of our community will be robbed of taking those important first steps to independence and skills.
I implore the minister, Mr Ellis, on behalf of women like Aimen and Sonya’s mum who is a refugee who had fled persecution and has had to deal with mental anguish with family separated by war, who were at the graduation ceremony and Sonya’s mum told the audience that she has found purpose and it has been a lifesaver for her to graduate from this course, to interact with other women and to have such good training and skills. Please do not cut these TAFE courses that make such a difference in the lives of women like Sonya’s mum, so that Be Hers can continue to do their work alongside migrant women, teachers and mentors alike.
