Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Sydney for bringing before the House this motion on women and COVID-19. I thank all members of the House—mostly Labor members of the House—who have spoken on this matter for their contribution to this important debate.

Issues of economic security and personal safety have been very much in the public discussion over the last week. The behaviour of those of us who work in this place has been placed under scrutiny. Often we come to this House somewhat in the manner of people who are lecturing to the rest of the country about how they should organise their workplaces, how they should organise their business and perhaps how they should organise their personal life. I think the events of the last fortnight have made it very clear that, if we're to have any credibility on what we're saying to the rest of Australia, we have to start with our own selves and our own behaviour. I know I speak on behalf of an overwhelming number of people in this place when I say that we have to do better. Yes, we have to improve the culture of this place, but we also have to make substantial improvements in substance, particularly in the way that we're legislating, in terms of the impact on the way that women live their lives.

A number of contributors to this debate touched on the issue of superannuation, a matter close to my heart. Superannuation, of course, is how we save a little bit of money each week to ensure that as Australians we can retire with a greater sense of economic security and with a greater sense of dignity. As the member for Hunter and the member for Sydney have pointed out in their contributions, women are falling further and further and further behind. As of today, the average Australian woman retires with $120,000 in her retirement savings. The average male retires with $183,000 in his superannuation account. Just to put that into context, let's deal with the average female worker. A hundred and twenty thousand dollars is less than the Prime Minister will accrue in two years. Let me say that again: the Prime Minister will accrue more superannuation in two years than the average Australian woman will retire with after her entire working life. We've got a job of work to do. How can we as parliamentarians say 9½ per cent is enough for the women of Australia when we know that, over a term of parliament, we will accrue more superannuation than most women are retiring with? So, yes, we have to work on the culture, but we also have to work on so many of the bills that we put before this place that have a direct impact on the economic livelihoods of the women of this country.

The member for Hunter has also pointed out the alarming statistic about the growing number of Australian women who are retiring in poverty. There's a silent crisis going on in this country. One in five Australians over the age of 55 are jobless. I'll say that again: one in five Australians over the age of 55 are jobless—unemployed, on the carers benefit or on a disability support pension. They're invisible. We don't talk about them. We certainly don't deal with their issues when it comes to the legislation that comes before this House—not in superannuation, not in job support and getting them back into the workplace, and certainly not with a proposition that says, 'If you're jobless, in a few weeks time we're going to cut your income support down to $40 a day.'

We've got a lot more that needs to be done if we're going to create greater equality for this group of women. One in three women over the age of 55 are living in poverty—one in three. But we're not talking about it. The motion that the member for Sydney brings before the House today deals with International Women's Day, but it is something that we should be considering each and every day as legislators. Yes, of course we've got to improve the culture in this place. Yes, of course we've got to ensure that this workplace stands out as a beacon to every other workplace in the country, as a place where women can feel confident, comfortable and safe in their workplace. But we need to do much more than that as well. We need to ensure that women retire with dignity and that throughout their working lives they're not discriminated against in their pay or how they're treated within their workplace. Unless we can do this, no nation on International Women's Day is going to elevate women to the level of equality that they so deserve.

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