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By Kim Comerford BRISBANE — About 60 people attended the Women's Liberation Conference organised by the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) and Resistance on October 29. The conference was the first of its kind here. The conference panels focussed on themes such as beating the backlash against feminism and strategies for winning liberation in the '90s. Workshop groups addressed issues such as fighting violence against women, and women, the environment and the Third World. "Too often we're told that we live in a post-feminist era, yet full equality for women has far from been achieved. Women still face major discrimination in Australia and internationally", said one of the conference organisers, Ana Kailis. Meeta Iyer, from the Domestic Violence Resource Centre, argued that to beat the backlash, women need to remain focussed on equality issues, find out what is happening in young women's lives, and support those women who are actively trying to rebuild the movement. Jenny Dunne (Gold Coast Sexual Assault Support Service), Cheryl Dawson (Union of Australian Women) and Nanette Kempbal, who attended the NGO Beijing Conference on Women, reported on that gathering. Desi Achilleos, from the Brisbane Rape and Incest Crisis Centre highlighted the threat to sexual assault and domestic violence support services funding in Queensland. Funding for these services will be halved, seriously affecting 24-hour services, child-care provision and services for rural women. There is no state government commitment to fund any of these services beyond 1995. Petitions against these cutbacks are circulating and the campaign is growing. Emre Distor from the Centre for Philippine Concerns reported that a growing number of women and organisations are campaigning against the sex tourism industry. She also discussed the Philippines government's refusal to acknowledge the abuse and maltreatment of many Filipino workers, particularly women, in overseas labour contracts. Governments around the world often argue that the population "explosion" is the key cause of environmental destruction, but this was contested in a workshop given by Connie Healy from Community Aid Abroad and Lisa Young from Resistance. The conference concluded with discussion on strategies for women's liberation in the '90s. The final panel comprised Claire Moore from the Community and Public Sector Union, Lenore Orellana from the Union of Guatemalan Women and Kerry Vernon from the DSP. Discussions centred around the ALP's women's policies and the formation of the Australian Women's Party (AWP), whose founding members broke from the ALP. Moore argued that the challenge for women is to make better use of structures already in place, and that the AWP had not taken the fight for equality far enough within the ALP. Vernon challenged this arguing that the AWP split from the ALP was an important break from the two-party system. However, she concluded that the AWP's focus on achieving equality for women through equal parliamentary representation was a limitation.