Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak on this important motion put forward by the member for Jagajaga on the gender pay gap. This is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, it's something we've reckoned with for a long time as a society. On this day in 1984, the Sex Discrimination Act came into force. That was the year that I finished year 12. Not enough has changed in the last 40 years. This is not something that is going to remedy itself of its own accord. It's a problem that is persistent, with consequences and harms that go well beyond the headline figures.

It is not simply that many women take home less income than their male counterparts, although that's an obvious injustice. The same pay for the same job is not the norm in this country. The gender pay gap reflects a deep and structural inequality. Women are paid less than men for the same jobs straight out of university or in base-level jobs. Men are more likely to be tapped for a promotion. Women are more likely to be penalised for their caring duties—a perfect storm of gender disadvantage.

But there's more. It is perhaps more obvious in the way that we value and reward different types of work in this country. During the pandemic, we found out who our essential workers really are. They are our nurses; our aged-care workers; the retail workers who put up with people squabbling in supermarket aisles over essential items; our teachers; and our childhood educators. I was lucky enough to spend some time with some dedicated childcare workers recently with the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Anne Aly, when she came to the Warradale Community Children's Centre at Parkholme. Some of these women had worked there a decade or more, dedicated to ensuring a positive experience and growth opportunities for the children involved in their care—our next generation.

One thing all of these industries have in common is that the essential work undertaken in them is predominantly done by women. The so-called feminised industries are renowned for low pay rates and insecure work. These workers are not rewarded in a way that recognises just how essential they are to the functioning of our society. What does it say about our community that those professions that look after our next generation, that are responsible for their education and growth, that look after us when we are sick or older or vulnerable or that are responsible for ensuring that we can get what we need to eat and survive are so low paid? At the times that we as Australians are most dependent on the work of others for our wellbeing, those people are not financially valued.

That's why I was so proud when the Albanese government advocated for a minimum wage rise in line with inflation, and it was delivered. Two point eight million people benefited from this. Sixty per cent of them were women. And it's why we will continue to fight to improve the wages and conditions of workers in these highly feminised industries.

When it comes to the gender pay gap, the ramifications are sometimes hidden, but they're ongoing. We see this in the fact that older women are the fastest-growing group of people who are likely to experience homelessness. I've seen it countless times in my prior work: women getting to retirement, losing employment or experiencing a family breakdown and very rapidly finding themselves with no way to pay the rent or the mortgage—and I note that it's currently National Homelessness Week. This is often compounded by the fact that, as well as being lower paid, women are statistically more likely to work in casual, part-time or insecure employment. They too often have very low superannuation balances and little savings as a result of that lifelong gender pay inequity. That's why I'm proud to stand here as a member of the Albanese Labor government, which is truly committed to closing the gender pay gap—establishing an independent women's economic security task force to help inform budget investments in advancing economic equality, making gender pay equity an object of the Fair Work Act 2009, requiring large companies to publish their gender pay gaps, and backing a real pay rise for aged-care workers, who are overwhelmingly women, and looking to provide backing for similar industries.

It's indefensible that in this day and age we shouldn't have the same pay for the same job, and an appropriate valuation of the so-called 'feminised workforces'. Labor is committed to eliminating the gender pay gap.

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