Sharryn Jackson (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations, I present the committee’s report, incorporating a dissenting report, entitled Making it fair: pay equity and associated issues related to increasing female participation in the workforce, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

Pay equity or the lack of it was one of the issues that sparked my interest in politics and social justice. As a young woman I was outraged that someone could or would be paid less for their work because of their gender.

It angers me that over 30 years later, despite some progress, this is still the case. Sadly, the average industry gender pay gap still stands around 17 per cent today.

Many Australians are unaware of the existence of a ‘pay gap’ between men and women’s earnings. Evidence to the inquiry has shown that once people become aware of the pay gap most believe that it should be addressed.

Australian women have much to celebrate. They have achieved high public office. Women are CEOs, business and community leaders, Nobel Laureates, academics, parliamentarians, local councillors, sporting heroes as well as mothers, sisters and partners.

Australian women have more choices about their lives, their studies, their careers, their families and how they chose to live them than ever before.

However, in the business sector women represent less than two per cent of our CEOs and chair only two per cent of our top 200 ASX companies. Women are more likely to be employed in low-paying jobs with little or no career paths and are more likely to be employed as casuals and part-time workers.

Women have not fared as well as men in enterprise bargaining or under systems of individual contracts.

Women miss out on the opportunity to accumulate superannuation because of interruptions to paid employment for family reasons (to have and care for children) compounded by lower pay, and are more likely to be dependent on pensions in retirement.

This is not good enough and the time to act is now.

Some will say that we should wait; for what I am not sure—divine intervention? It is 40 years since equal pay was granted by the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. Haven’t Australian women been waiting long enough?

Australia should take a proactive approach to address the gender pay gap. Increasing women’s participation in the workforce will lead to increases in productivity for the nation. Perhaps we should ask: how can Australia afford not to do it?

Education campaigns promoting community and business awareness of pay inequity alone do not work. We have tried that and the pay gap has widened.

At the heart of the gender pay gap is the failure to truly value traditional women’s work—paid or unpaid.

To continue to undervalue women’s work is simply not just. It is difficult to think of any other policy equivalent that clearly disadvantages such a large class of Australians that we do not rush to correct.

This report sets out a scheme to act to close the gender pay gap. It includes proposed amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009, greater powers for the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to act on wage discrimination and the establishment of a specialist pay equity unit within Fair Work Australia with a broad mandate for change.

We have called for change in other policy areas such as the removal of the $450 per month earnings requirement in compulsory superannuation and the implementation of comprehensive portability of employment entitlements legislation.

Evidence from the private sector provided examples of best practice and the benefits for companies in addressing pay equity issues within their organisation. We have avoided creating regular reporting obligations for small and medium enterprises as we recognise the burden that red tape has on this sector. There should be no requirement for small businesses to supply information already collected by government agencies. Requirements from small business should be confined to one-off reporting and only when it has been established that there are significant issues within that industry. We have also reduced the existing reporting requirements for larger companies. However, those large companies that have been shirking there responsibility will no longer be able to do this.

We acknowledge there are significant gaps in the data available for collection and research into pay equity and other issues affecting women’s participation in the workforce. In particular we have recommended the introduction of an Australian industrial relations survey. This improved data is necessary for more effective and strategic policy decision making.

We have also recommended that the Australian government provide leadership by acting on pay inequity within the Australian Public Service as well as applying pay equity principles in all its administrative approaches. The Australian government’s decision to deliver paid parental leave in this year’s budget was a welcome reform and there are also reviews into taxation and childcare policies, all of which will help break down the barriers to greater workforce participation by women.

The minister has also recently announced that the Australian government will be a participant in an important pay equity test case for employees in the social and community services sector. I applaud this decision.

I want to thank the members of the committee and especially the committee secretariat for their hard work and participation in the inquiry. It has been a long but worthwhile journey for all of us.

I commend the report to the House. (Time expired)

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