I rise to speak on the petition I have presented from Jasiri Australia regarding statues of women in the territory. I have spoken previously in this place about a lack of representation of historical women in the territory in comparison to historical men. This petition was started by a group of young women from Jasiri Australia who are deeply committed to advancing the opportunities for and representation of women in politics.

You cannot be what you cannot see, Madam Speaker. As I have noted previously, the ratio of men to women represented in public art in the territory is one to 10. Of the 11 representations of historical or political figures in our public art, only one is of a woman.

There are 30 gendered sculptures listed on the artsACT website, 16 men and 11 women. When one looks at this breakdown, it is not quite so stark. However, 10 of the 11 representations of women are abstract, including those representing shopping, being a sister, dreaming in the nude, separation, being a mythical serpent queen, civic pride, whimsy, naivety, driving, stepping out of the house, and celebrating place. Of the representations of men, 10 are historical figures and six are abstract. The abstract sculptures represent being a father, being a son, flying too close to the sun, separation, being a cadet, being a soccer player and, finally, being large and small at the same time.

The difference in representation is glaringly obvious. As such, I agreed to support the petition started by Jasiri Australia. Additionally, I have written to the Chief Minister about the issue, with my letter having been referred to the Minister for the Arts. The minister has let me know that she has asked artsACT to review the public art guidelines to figure out the most effective way to embed inclusion and diversity considerations in the artist commissioning process in the ACT. I thank the minister for her response, and I look forward to hearing about the findings.

I am glad to be able to present this petition to the Assembly today and I commend Jasiri Australia for setting it up.