The ACTU Congress was held at the Melbourne Convention Centre from 18th- 21st August 2003.

The policies passed at that Conference included two key policies which impacted on women as workers and these were the Childcare Policy, and the Work and Family Life Policy, And, indeed, the initiatives within the International Policy will go some way to addressing the issues of poverty, exploitation and violence that women face globally.

These two policies suggest a raft of measures that, the AEU delegation supported, can make significant differences to the lives of working women. An important panel consisting of Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Ms Pru Goward, Autoliv Human Resources General Manager, Ms Cheryl Woollard, Federal Member for Fremantle, Ms Carmen Lawrence and ACTU President, Sharan Burrow herself, clearly articulated the need for and the sensibility of a Paid Maternity Leave Scheme in Australia.