Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am excited that the parliament will not be meeting on 8 March this year, and I look forward to joining with women in my electorate to mark, celebrate and share stories on International Women's Day. I look forward to attending the Zonta Club of Bendigo annual dinner. On the same night, there is dinner held by the Zonta Club of Kyneton. Every year we have a great guest speaker. It is a chance for women to come together, network, support one another and share stories.

International Women's Day is an important day for all of us to mark, whether we are men or women. Its roots began in the labour movement on 8 March when New York garment workers went on strike calling for decent pay, an end to sweat shops and an end to child labour. As previous members have reflected in this discussion today, there are still many parts of the world where women are still taking this action. We saw in Cambodia, last year and the year before, garment workers striking for very similar reasons to those of New York garment workers in 1908. Cambodia garment workers took industrial action and are now the first workers in their country to have a legal minimum wage—women in women's industries standing up to say not only that they will not have child labour and sweatshops but that they need a minimum wage. In Cambodia there are still lots of challenges when it comes to gender equality, whether it is the issue of wages and treatment in the workplace or education levels, which are incredibly low, particularly for young women and girls, because they are quite often asked to stay at home to care for younger children or to help with household chores.

In our own country we have our own challenges, and this year, on International Women's Day, I would like to acknowledge the campaign by our early childhood educators calling for equal pay. Early childhood educators are people with qualifications, predominantly women who have minimum cert qualifications; some of them have diplomas. Yet their wages are shockingly low compared with those in male based industries with the same qualifications. The importance of their work cannot be underestimated. They are educating our next generation of Australians—education and care from nought to five—yet their wages remain incredibly low. So, this year on International Women's Day I call on all people in this place to sign onto their campaign for equal pay. They are calling for the gender pay gap in their sector to be closed. And it does need government support. We cannot continue to expect parents to pay for early childhood education. Government has a role to play to partner, to help fund this sector to ensure that these educators, these women, earn decent pay—that their work is recognised and that they are paid professional wages.

On International Women's Day I would also like to call on this government to do more to support older women—women who have retired and are trying to survive on very small retirement incomes. For a lot of women who have retired or are about to retire and who are on their own, when they first started working there was no such thing as super. Quite often they were required to leave work the moment they married or fell pregnant. So, they do not have the superannuation that many of their male counterparts do at a similar age. Homelessness for women over the age of 55 is one of the fastest-growing homeless categories in this country. That is pretty alarming and pretty shocking. So, on this International Women's Day I call upon all of us to do more to advocate for older women who have retired and who are trying to survive on the single pension. As Maggie put it to me: 'It was okay whilst I was still working; I could afford my rent, could afford to go out to the movies occasionally. But the single pension today does not really cover the basics.' She said 60 per cent of her pension goes on rent. That is just how expensive it has become in the regions to survive.

On International Women's Day we should acknowledge the struggles and the challenges ahead, but we should also acknowledge the achievements of the past. It will take all of us speaking up for these issues to really bring about gender equality. On International Women's Day it is important that we remember these causes.

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