Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, can I congratulate you again on your elevation to the chair. I thank very much the member for Sturt for the question, with particular congratulations to her on being the first woman to represent the seat of Sturt. I know that you've got your first speech coming up after question time, but I just want to say to you that we are so very proud and privileged to have you here with us.

We're making history. We have the first majority female parliament in our history, and you can see, from behind me, that Labor has been doing the lion's share of that work. We also have first majority female cabinet in our history, and that means more women are in the cabinet room making decisions that impact on women.

The Albanese Labor government is absolutely committed to delivering for women and representing them. The list of achievements is long. There are many that started on 1 July, and I want to talk about some of those. We've delivered even more support for women. We're increasing the national minimum wage and award wages by 3.5 per cent from 1 July so that women can earn more. We're increasing paid parental leave to 24 weeks; that makes a material difference not just to women but to their families overall. We're making sure super is paid on government paid parental leave. With women holding the majority of student loans, our 20 per cent reduction in HECS debts will also help to lower student debt for women. We're delivering Commonwealth prac payments for women dominated sectors such as nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work. We're also ensuring aged-care nurses, of which the majority are women, will receive their next pay rise in October. All of this is contributing significantly to the record low gender pay gap. We know that none of this happens by accident. Having women in the room matters with all our policy initiatives.

Our new National Access to Justice Partnership is helping to reduce pay disparity and support frontline services for people experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence. We have a proven track record on delivering better outcomes for women and our new measures build on those investments from the last parliament. They include over $4 billion for combating gender based violence. We've secured 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave, and we've directed $1 billion to crisis and transitional accommodation. Again, none of this happens by accident. Having women in the room matters, and making sure women are represented across the country also does not happen by accident; you have to purposely do it.

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