Interdepartmental Working Group Taskforce on Migrant Women (1977)

In 1977, when the Galbally review of Post-Arrival Migrant Programs and Services was announced, Senator Margaret Guilfoyle wrote to the Prime Minister advising him of the specific problems and special needs of migrant women. In June of that year, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser asked the Office of Women's Affairs to set up an Interdepartmental Working Group Taskforce on Migrant Women. Officers from the following department were involved:

• Imigration and Ethnic Affairs
• Social Security
• Employment and Industrial Relations
• Productivity
• Health
• Education
• School's Commission

Under extremely trying conditions, including endless delays caused by the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, the taskforce completed its report in November, just making the deadline to be considered by the Galbally Review. Among other things, the report recommended that 'wherever possible action should be taken to provide services through or in co-operation with ethnic organisations and migrant women'.

The report was regarded as a valaubale resource for implementation of Recommendation 43 of the Galbally Report.

Featured Organisation

• Being Seen And Heard: Migrant Women Organising In Australia, A Documentary History (2006 - )

Related Corporate Bodies

• Office of Women's Affairs (1974 - 1977)

  Chaired the Interdepartmental Working Group Task Force on Migrant Women in 1977, an important review which informed the Galbally Review of Post-arrival Migrant Programs and Services.

Related Events

• Review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants (1977 - 1978)

  The report of the Interdepartmental Working Group Taskfirce of Migrant Women was very important to ensuring that migrant women and their needs were given priority in the Galbally Review

Related People

• Guilfoyle, Margaret Georgina (1926 - )

  Margaret Guilfoyle urged the prime minister to make sure that the Galbally Review of Post-arrival Migrant Programs and Services considered the specific needs and concerns of migrant women

Reports

• Office of Women's Affairs, Interdepartmental Working Group On Women's Affairs: Report of Task Force on Migrant Women, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, November 1977. [ Details... ]

See also

• Sawer, Marian, 'Double Disadvantage: Migrant and Aboriginal Women', in Sisters in Suits: Women and Public Policy in Australia, Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, 1990, pp. 107-139. [ Details... ]