Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Many years ago, before I was even a candidate in my electorate of Chisholm, one of my local neighbourhood houses was selling second-hand books in Mount Waverley. A memoir caught my eye. Zelda, it was called—written by the incomparable, uncompromising Zelda D'Aprano. Zelda D'Aprano was a passionate warrior for equal pay, chaining herself in protest to government buildings and pursuing the cause her whole life. Zelda D'Aprano passed away in 2018, and in 2024 a beautiful bronze statue of her was erected in Melbourne outside the Victorian Trades Hall Council building, which I spent a few years at working as an assistant secretary. Her statue is one of too few statues of women in my hometown in Melbourne. Emblazoned on the base of her statue is a quote, which was a response. She made the statement in response to an incredulous question she was asked about her activism and whether she could achieve anything. This is what she said:

Today it was me, tomorrow there will be two of us, the next day there will be three and it will go on and on and there won't be any stopping it.

As we mark International Women's Day this year, with its theme of 'balance the scales', let's think about the scales of justice and ensuring that all women and girls can access fairness and equality. Just as Zelda D'Aprano sought justice for herself and others, we must continue to make sure we never take a backward step and we move forward together to achieve meaningful and sustainable equality.

It is worth remembering that, when the first iteration of International Women's Day was held in 1909 in New York, it was led by garment workers who were trying to secure better wages and hours and the right to bargain with their employers. The conditions that garment workers toiled in were unsafe. It was only two years later, in 1911, that one of the greatest industrial disasters in United States history occurred—the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a brutal event which killed 123 women and 23 men.

In Australia, our first International Women's Day was held in 1928, soon after parliament first sat here in Canberra. Its focus was again on women's rights at work. Equal pay for equal work, eight-hour workdays and better conditions were central themes. Fast forward almost 100 years, and there have been considerable achievements made. In 1973, the Whitlam government appointed the first women's adviser to a prime minister in the world, and the Sex Discrimination Act passed by the Hawke government in 1984 was a landmark moment for our nation and women's rights more broadly across the world. The gender pay gap right now is at a low of 11.5 per cent. It's still too high, but this is good progress when considering that a decade ago it was over 18 per cent. There is clearly still more work to do though to ensure real economic equality.

Since the Fair Work Act came into effect in 2009, introduced by the Rudd government, certain rights have been guaranteed to all workers under the National Employment Standards. These were expanded to include paid parental leave provisions and paid family and domestic violence leave. These are entitlements we know do disproportionately impact women, as they are vastly more likely to be primary caregivers and assault survivors. These additional entitlements were all introduced under Labor governments.

In addition to more choice in taking paid parent leave for both parents regardless of gender and implementing paid family and domestic violence leave, the Albanese Labor government has critically made gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act. The Albanese government's industrial relations reforms have reflected both the changing nature of work and families and the idea that the gendering of work—women's work and men's work—has been harmful to both the wages taken home by Australians and also the aspirations and opportunities for every person in our country. We should have boys and girls wanting to take on all sorts of occupations and opportunities, having all kinds of dreams about their future, not just those that have been preordained for cohorts based on gender alone.

I am proud to be part of a government that is making important progress, with over 50 per cent of our caucus made up of women. Positive change is what happens when there are different voices and including women's voices in rooms where decisions are made. Our women's health package, which provides for new medications and takes seriously the experience of girls and women in the medical system, is another big part of the way we are listening to and acting for and with women.

There is still so much more to do, despite all the positive advances. We must all act to eliminate the absolutely appalling rates of violence against women we see in this country, the misogyny we see online and the real and potential gendered harm we witness due to the growth of artificial intelligence and the way it may develop in the future. There has, unfortunately, been a global contraction of global aid to support girls and women, and rights have been going backwards for girls and women in parts of the world, which is something that should terrify us all and mobilise us all to take action.

There is so much more work to be done, and this year I once again commit myself to doing all I can, inspired by the efforts made by those who came before me. Change is possible when we work together. I want to pay tribute to all those who came before me, from the first Labor woman elected to the House of Representatives, Joan Child, who represented an area that overlaps my current electorate—her electorate of Henty has unfortunately been abolished—to the suffragists in my own family who went out and knocked on doors to get people to sign the monster petition in Victoria for women to have the right to vote and who, of course, put their name to that petition themselves.

On International Women's Day and in responding to the statement made by the Assistant Minister in the house, I think it is really important this week to mention and acknowledge the brave Iranian soccer players who will now call Australia home. They will now be able to be athletes in a democratic society that values their contributions, where they can make choices and be heard. When we look at the world, we see that democracy is something that has become very fragile in recent times. I want to thank the Iranian Australian community, who I have worked with for many years, for their work and their advocacy. I particularly want to acknowledge the Iranian Women's Association and other groups that I've worked with in my own community of Chisholm in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne for their voice in conversations about women's rights and about girls and women being able to make all the choices that should be able to make as free agents of their own destiny.

On International Women's Day, let's look back at what's been achieved, but let's also acknowledge the challenges that lay before us and commit ourselves to working together to make sure that we have a more equal and better society for all.

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