Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins for her question. Economic security goes hand in hand with financial independence, and this is a budget that gives women more choices than they have ever had before in the workforce. Within our $3.4 billion women's budget we have $1.9 billion to support women's economic security—to retrain for a new job, to acquire new skills, to take on an apprenticeship or, as an employer, to take on an apprentice or to take stock mid-career and take a different direction. All of these opportunities and choices are funded through this budget. We can make this possible when we give women a secure future. The childcare investment alone will add up to 300,000 hours of work a week, allowing mothers, fathers and carers, up to 40,000 people, to work an extra day a week, boosting GDP by $1.5 billion a year.

I'm particularly proud of how we are helping women into non-traditional trade occupations, including in construction, where we have got a great partnership with Master Builders Australia in their Women Building Australia program, which focuses on mentoring and supporting women to achieve success in what is historically a male dominated profession.

It's vital that everyone feels secure in their workplace. The Morrison government is committed to building a new culture of respect in Australian workplaces, one that calls out and prohibits sexual harassment. This budget delivers the funding to implement our response to Respect@Work. We know that many women, particularly those in the later stages of their lives, can find themselves suddenly financially vulnerable. It can stem from family breakdown, poor superannuation balances at retirement or just being on the wrong side of the gender pay gap throughout your career. We want to see improved retirement incomes for women. We will remove the $450-a-month threshold under which employees are not—

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