Launch of Big Sister: Advanced Mentoring WA Project

Acknowledgements omitted It is my pleasure to join you for the launch of the Big Sister: Advanced Mentoring WA Project. Big Sister is led by women, for women. It delivers what our economy needs.

More completions by women apprentices. The Commonwealth is proud to back this initiative all the way. Yvonne Ward 1978 was a big year in Western Australia.

We opened Australia’s first Timezone arcade in Perth. Commercial whaling ended in Albany. And Cyclone Alby all but ended the Busselton Jetty.

The soundtrack to everything was Olivia Netwon-John singing ‘You’re the One that I Want.’ And 600 kilometres east of here a British migrant was making Australian history. Her name was – and is – Yvonne Ward. She was standing in the red dust of Kambalda in oversized Western Mining overalls, and she was standing up for her right to work.

Yvonne was 18 years old, the only woman in a room of 1,500 men competing for a position as an electrical apprentice in the mines. She had relocated from cold and rainy Liverpool in the UK, and was stunned by what she saw: “… these big blue skies, red dirt, the heat shimmered on the road And we were warned to look out for snakes and seeing goannas — it was just amazing.” She decided on a trade in the way many people decide to go into a trade today: “My attitude was that if I want to have money, the only way to get that is to work, the only place to work in Kambalda is the mine.” She chose an electrical trade for similarly straightforward reasons: “I thought electrician because you don't have to lift anything — so I started my cunning plan.” Despite finishing pre-apprenticeship school second in her class, she was told women couldn’t work down the mines – because it was ‘bad luck.’ She was undeterred – she would work in the workshop, then.

Yvonne had to walk three kilometres, in the heat of the Goldfields – just to use a women’s toilet. She chopped off her plaited hair into a short crop at the end of her first day. Her colleagues put grease in her motorbike helmet.

They welded her steel caps together and her toolbox shut. Yvonne said she thought about quitting weekly – but was determined to keep going. She became Western Australia's first female electrician in the process.

Taking workplaces forward We are all fortunate for Yvonne’s determination. In her words: “Having diversity in your workplace opens up thought patterns… Sometimes you've got to show them they can think differently.” Thinking differently means innovation. And innovation is critical building the business, trade and economy of the future.

Here at the College of Electrical Training — or CET — you are delivering electrical careers for local women. Targeted mentoring from experienced women. Placements with a vetted host employer.

A clear pathway into a fully-fledged career as an electrician. All of us here know doors that being a qualified electrician can open. The second and third largest employers by industry in Western Australia are mining, followed by construction.

And our government shares your determination to open those doors to all Australians. It has been an absolute pleasure to see this in action today. To meet the Yvonnes of tomorrow.

You all challenge us to think differently. And that makes us a stronger, more innovative country. I wish CET and all the Big Sister participants all the best for the future.

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