Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion. This parliament needs to move quickly to address and implement the efforts of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in consultation with the previous coalition government in striving towards the elimination of gender discrimination, particularly the gender pay gap.

In March 2022, the previous coalition government released its review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, which it had committed to in its Women's Budget Statement of the previous year. This review sought feedback from across the community to address workplace gender equality, while, importantly, also considering the needs of employers. The review heard from businesses, employers, employee organisations, women's organisations and academics through roundtables and written submissions. This review now comes at a critical time. There is real momentum for change towards achieving gender equality in Australian workplaces.

Under the previous coalition government, wages for women employed full time did increase by 20 per cent over the past five years, as against the wages of Australian men, which increased by 15 per cent. Nevertheless, the gender pay gap still exists. On average, Australian women are earning $255 a week less than Australian men. This figure is worse in the 45-to-64 age group, where, on average, women are earning $40,000 per year—$800 per week—less than Australian men.

Although Australian women enrol in and complete higher education and enter the labour market at a higher proportion than men, they are still substantially less likely to work full time across all age groups and less likely to reach the highest earning levels. This is because the predominant responsibility of family and caring duties falls on women. I know this from personal experience. I temporarily stepped away from my career—a legal career—in order to raise my twin sons full time. Even 16 years ago, when my sons were born, I battled against the perception in my workplace that it was not appropriate for a senior lawyer to work in a part-time capacity. Unfortunately, this story was all too common amongst my peers.

There has been significant workplace attitudinal change towards flexible working over the past 16 years. I have been a lucky—I shouldn't even say 'lucky'—recipient of that and have managed to work part time for a number of years. I've also encouraged, where possible, my female—and male—employees to work flexibly. However, as Australians, we still have a long journey to travel.

I recommend the report. The report includes six substantial recommendations, starting with conducting a pay gap analysis, which has been undertaken. It then talks about introducing a robust, gender-neutral paid parental leave policy in order that both males and females can avail themselves of looking after young children and returning to the workplace. The report also talks about normalising flexible working arrangements. It particularly mentions that we often have a tendency in the workplace to say, 'She only works part-time,' or, 'He only works four days a week.' We need to remove the 'only' from that conversation and normalise flexible working.

The fourth recommendation is to rethink and redesign part-time roles for managers. Often it is very hard, in many industries, for managers to obtain part-time and flexible work. The report also recommends inclusive recruitment and promotion practices.

The work is just beginning with this report, commissioned by the former coalition government, and all levels of government, business, and the community need to work together collectively to narrow the gender pay gap. It is particularly important that the private sector works in partnership with the three levels of government in order to drive change, as the private sector remains the largest employer of Australian women. An investment in gender equality is beneficial to employers as much as employees, as it can attract and retain talent. This is particularly relevant in 2022. (Time expired)

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