Ash Ambihaipahar (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When women thrive, Australia thrives, and that has always been Labor's vision. Under this Albanese Labor government we are making historic investments to deliver real economic equality for Australian women. For too long, women have been left behind in our economy, being underpaid, undervalued and unsupported, but change is happening. It's happening because this Albanese Labor government believes that every woman deserves safety, security, opportunity and a fair share in our nation's prosperity.

More than 8,000 community and personal service workers call Barton home. We know a larger share of these workers are women. They are nurses in our hospitals, caring for our elderly relatives in aged-care homes, supporting at-risk youth as social workers, and teaching our kids in early child care. We rely on them to keep our community safe, healthy and educated. There are more than 8,000 households relying on them to keep food on the table.

One of the first things I did as the member for Barton was visit some of these workers in training at Kogarah TAFE alongside Minister Giles. We visited three classes, the majority of which were filled with women and who were all taught by women. They had already begun their placements at St George Hospital and were eager to join local health services full time. One young student, Quinn, told me how excited they were to start work so they could give back to the community that had already given so much to them. These are the people benefiting from our work in this House—generous, kind, tough and diligent women in Barton. It is far overdue that we celebrate, protect and support their work.

We are absolutely rewriting the story of care in this country. We are expanding paid parental leave to six months by 2026, paying super on that leave from July this year and investing $1 billion to build more childcare centres. These changes mean families will be almost $12,000 better off than they were before Labor's reforms. We're also delivering on long-overdue pay rises in aged care and early childhood education, which are industries overwhelmingly dominated by women, and we extended the parenting payment until the child turns 14, supporting single mums to stay afloat.

During the last federal election campaign I doorknocked the entire electorate of Barton. I did that because I know that the conversations that dominate the media cycle here in Canberra and in the papers in Sydney are not necessarily the conversations that are happening around the dinner tables in Earlwood and Wolli Creek. Instead, parents wanted to talk about pay rises, the changes to early education and access to health care. Mums wanted to know how our government was supporting them and their family. Students wanted to know that their work would be rewarded once they finish their studies. The results speak for themselves: under Labor the gender pay gap is at record lows of just 11.9 per cent; women are earning $217 more per week than in May 2022; and women's workforce participation is at record highs of 63.4 per cent, with more than 600,000 new jobs for women created since Labor came to office. We've made gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act, we've required large employers to report their gender pay gaps and we're funding the Fair Work Commission to fix undervaluation in women-dominated industries.

We're not stopping there. We're investing in women's futures through fee-free TAFE, through practical placement payments for teaching, nursing and midwifery and social work students, and by cutting and reforming HECS and HELP debts, which disproportionately impacts women, who hold almost 60 per cent of student debt. Women's health is front and centre too. This government invested $792 million in women's health, open 22 dedicated endometriosis clinics, expanded care for menopause and tripled the bulk-billing incentives. Do you know why? Because women's health should never be treated as an afterthought.

To all those people I spoke to at their doorsteps, this is the work that is supporting you and helping you get ahead, and this is only the beginning. We are breaking barriers in leadership here in Australia. Now we have a gender-equal parliament for the first time in history, with Labor women driving their achievements. We also have a gender-equal cabinet, with 12 of 23 ministers being women. This is not symbolic; it is structural change. Let me be very clear: economic equality for women is not a side issue. It's not an afterthought. It is core nation-building work.

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