Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to be part of a federal Labor government that has introduced parental leave, increased the child care rebate and saved working families from the nightmare of Work Choices. These are among the policies of a government that shows understanding and respect for women—for their rights, needs and status. Achieving real equal pay in our workplace is the goal the Labor Party shares with many women around the country, in stark contrast to the Liberal Party, whose love affair with Work Choices left working women’s wages in tatters. Australian women will never forget the much-despised Work Choices, which stripped away conditions such as overtime and penalty rates, leaving working women severely short-changed. The greatest crime of that system was that if you did not cop it quietly on the chin, did not sign the individual contract, your job was at risk. Our government has put an end to all of this.

Of course, the Leader of the Opposition now wants to turn back the clock. He is determined that working women should have minimal job security, fewer penalty rates and inequitable pay rates. Thankfully, women around the nation are safe from Mr Abbott’s dangerous workforce policies, as long as he stays on the opposition benches. On our side of the House we have been working hard to undo the shackles put in place by Work Choices and to inject some much-needed fairness back into the workplace. In just 2½ years we have got rid of the Work Choices regime and rip-offs; we have introduced an annual minimum wage review; introduced the right to request flexible working arrangements; introduced new protections on the grounds of pregnancy, sex and caring responsibilities; introduced a new pay equity principle; and introduced Australia’s first Paid Parental Leave scheme, welcomed by families around the nation for the financial security it will provide.

The Leader of the Opposition has been consistently ‘dead against’ the idea of paid maternity leave. Remember not so long ago he said:

Voluntary paid maternity leave: yes; compulsory paid maternity leave: over this Government’s dead body, frankly.

He has been as against maternity leave as he was against a ‘great big new tax’ until of course he decided to do a backflip on both—a spectacular backflip, to be precise, in what can only be interpreted as a desperate bid to win back the millions of Australians he had alienated with his out-of-touch views. The Leader of the Opposition now tells us he wants to introduce a great big new tax on business, which will:

… make it easier for more women to choose the most traditional role of all.

In short, his parental scheme is about keeping as many women as possible out of the workforce and tied back to the ironing-board and the kitchen sink.

Australian women can see through these political acrobatics on the part of the opposition leader. The truth—the actual truth, that is, rather than the opposition leader’s trademark half-truths—is that he has chopped and changed on so many occasions that it is impossible to know where he will end up. His views could be laughably dismissed if he were just an ordinary citizen; but this man is the alternative Prime Minister of our nation and his views need to be placed under public scrutiny. Australian women have not fought for 40 years to have their rights dismissed. We deserve the right to choose how and when we work, to make decisions about our reproductive health and how we balance our work and family life, and to have our concerns addressed fairly in the mainstream of public debate, not by a conservative and outmoded view of women totally at odds with 21st century Australia.

I have dedicated my working life to the cause of workers’ rights and women’s rights and I know a danger to those hard-fought rights when I see one. The Leader of the Opposition has never repudiated his core beliefs about women and he had the opportunity not long ago to do so. He said:

I think it would be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons.

I think that says it all. His current small-target strategy will be no comfort when women throughout the nation understand his real agenda and his core beliefs and conclude that he is not deserving of their support.

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