Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that 8 March 2021 is International Women's Day and acknowledges the immense contribution Australian women have made during the COVID-19 pandemic, as frontline workers, as parents, and as community members;

(2) expresses concern that the decisions the Government has taken are making things worse for hardworking Australian women and have set too many women on a path to poverty by:

(a) using the pandemic as cover to give businesses more power to cut the pay of Australian workers;

(b) abandoning women in insecure and casual work; and

(c) robbing women of a comfortable retirement by making people eat into their superannuation savings to get by;

(3) further notes that this is no way to thank the women whose commitment at home, in the community, and at work has got us through the pandemic; and

(4) calls on the Government to deliver a COVID-19 response and economic plan that benefits all Australians.

This motion notes that we are approaching 8 March, International Women's Day. It's a day where we celebrate the social, economic and cultural contribution of women around the world. This year, after all we've experienced, that contribution feels particularly significant.

When 15,000 women marched in New York in 1908—considered the beginning of International Women's Day—they were demanding voting rights, as well as shorter hours and better pay. From that march grew an international movement that continues to demand equality for women: economic equality, political equality and social equality. Indeed, this this year's theme is 'Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World'. It's about honouring:

… the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal … recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It's a vision that we share in the Labor Party, but greater equality is not inevitable; it must be fought for.

The past 12 months have been confronting for everyone, but women have shouldered an enormous burden during this pandemic. Much of the frontline work has been done by women. Women have lost jobs at a greater rate than men, and women have lost more hours of work than men. We've had women in caring professions putting their health and their safety on the line, in the front line, for other Australians. We've had women in schools shifting their practice overnight and making sure our kids kept learning as the rest of their lives were tipped on their heads. We've had women cleaning the nation's offices, hospitals, schools, shopping centres, public transport and other public places, fighting the pandemic on low pay and in insecure work. We've had women in tourism, hospitality and retail—sectors hit so hard by the lockdowns. We've had women in our homes, guiding their families through the disruption of a lifetime. Both men and women have increased their hours of domestic labour during the lockdown, but women, of course, have increased their hours much more. It's been a massive, often risky, often heroic contribution, and we in the Labor party honour it. Women will be critical to the recovery too. This is where our choices will make our society and economy more, or less, equal as we begin the road to recovery.

This is where the government is going wrong: with an industrial relations bill that cuts pay and makes it easier to sack people, particularly low paid and vulnerable workers. We know that women, when they rely on award payments, have been very severely affected by changes to the industrial relations regime under those opposite. We see a broken promise on superannuation when we already know that women are retiring with about half of the superannuation savings of men, as the shadow minister continues to point out. This is particularly bad as we know that older single women are the fastest-growing group of people going into homelessness. Just last week we saw the abolition of the Family Court because of a shameful deal done with One Nation. We know that specialist services that are informed by people who are expert in dealing with domestic violence are absolutely critical for families at these very difficult times. So that's the Liberals' promise: lower wages, less security and less safety through our legal system.

Labor has a different agenda for the economic recovery. It is one that recognises that, until wages start rising again, people won't be confident to spend to create jobs for others. It is one that identifies the growing epidemic of job insecurity and has a plan to create good, permanent work. It is one that makes child care affordable for working families and one that invests in dignified aged care and provides better retirement incomes. That's how we honour women's contribution, that's how we drive our recovery and that's how we build a better, fairer country for all Australians.

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