Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance and Women, Senator Gallagher, to a question without notice I asked today relating to gender equality.

People might know that today, for the first time, we've had the release of employer-level gender pay gap data. It's the first time that the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, which has been doing marvellous work for about 10 years, has been able to release this employer-level data. We welcome that, because the Greens that have called for that for quite some time. It will also enable workers to have a check on what the gender pay gap is in their particular workplace. Importantly, it will enable consumers to have a think about if they still want to keep buying that particular brand or keep somehow giving money to that particular organisation.

This is welcome information, but it isn't simply up to business to fix the gender pay gaps that they identify in their own workplaces. There is a role for government here too. So I asked the minister what is the government going to do about the fact that many of these companies that have very large gender pay gaps get government grants or get government contracts? I also asked the minister— although, unfortunately, she didn't take that bit on notice, but I'm still after the answer—how many companies, with a large gender pay gap or any gender pay gap, are in receipt of Commonwealth contracts or Commonwealth grants? I'd still like to know the answers to those questions. We know a few from our own basic research.

The government should really analyse its own books, because, as the minister outlined for me, there is a procurement policy. I did read that earlier today, and, unfortunately, the procurement policy simply says that companies have to report on their gender pay gap in order to be eligible for grants or contracts. It doesn't say they've got to do anything to fix their gender pay gap. That's not good enough. The government needs to be part of driving change. The government needs to be part of ending the gender pay gap, and part of the way it can do that is by using its buying power, its procurement policies. The government should not be subsidising discrimination by giving government contracts or government grants of public money to companies that have a gender pay gap. It's as simple as that.

When I asked the minister whether the government would do those things, I didn't really get a very clear response. As an eternal optimist, I remain hopeful. I believe the minister did say that she has those procurement guidelines or some review of them before her at the minute, so I would urge her to make sure that the scope of that review does countenance looking at the gender pay gap of companies and making sure that they're not eligible to apply for Commonwealth grants or for Commonwealth contracts until they start taking steps or ideally fix their gender pay gap. Again, I live in hope, and, with minister in the chamber, I thought it worth reiterating both that we still want those details and that we would like the government to take these concerns seriously and do more to help close the gender pay gap.

The minister did say that she is hopeful that employers will take steps to close it. We're all hopeful, but it is not enough. One of the flaws of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 is that it doesn't obligate companies to do anything about the gender pay gap that they identify. Yes, it's great that they're obliged to identify it, but they're not obliged to do anything about it. My party would like to see some stronger rules that actually obligate employers to not just be aware of their gender pay gap but actually fix it. Surely, that's not too much to ask? We remain resolute that there needs to be more than just hope that companies will be embarrassed into fixing their gender pay gap. With the naming and shaming provisions that have come into effect and been revealed today, yes, there will be some impetus, we hope also, for change, but it is not enough. We need that regulatory backing, and we need the government's buying power to incentivise companies making change.

On that note, I might add that it's only companies with over 100 employees that even have to report their gender pay gap. This legislation only mandates employers of that large size to check whether they have a gender pay gap. Why not companies with 50 employees? Why not some other threshold that would be more akin to the international standard, which is 50, that Australian women and workers deserve? Again, the Greens have pushed for this threshold to be lowered for quite some time now, and we continue to assert that this data could be even more powerful and drive even more change if more employers, namely those with 50 or more employees, were responsible for checking and reporting on their gender pay gap.

With my last few seconds, I want to congratulate the Workplace Gender Equality Agency for the excellent work they do and urge the government to not just leave it to business to hope that they make change but use the government's contracts and grants abilities to incentivise change and to make sure that more companies have to report on their gender pay gap.

Question agreed to.