In the book, Dame Enid expressed concern for many working women, expressed no less forthrightly these days. She was properly concerned for her children, the effect of her long absences from them and the need to balance their needs with her responsibilities as a working person, whose job often kept her distant from them. Some, may I say ladies and gentlemen, have wrongly attempted to stereotype my Government as possessing, as what is described as, an old fashioned attitude towards women. The world has changed forever since Dame Enid Lyons' time. The choices available to many women in Australian society are now virtually limitless, compared with a generation ago.
Australian society is more diverse and better for that fact.
Its social structures have changed significantly and will continue to do so. The role of women has changed and we are a richer community as a consequence. Dame Enid contributed significantly to those evolutions and just as she met the challenges of her time, it is our response and ability to meet the challenges of our time. The single principle which guides the Government's approach to women is the principle of respect in the broader sense. Respect for their wish for safety, for industrial relations conditions which meet their needs as parents and carers, for their ambitions to succeed and for income security in their retirement years.