Sarah Witty (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Friday morning I walked down Lygon Street in Carlton towards Trades Hall for the annual International Working Women's Day Rally. You could hear the crowd before you saw it. Women were calling to the gathering crowd through megaphones, and the steps of Trades Hall were already filled with union banners and handmade signs. There were students standing beside nurses, teachers beside hospitality workers and parents beside young people who were attending their first rally. It was a powerful reminder that in Melbourne the fight for equality has always been at the heart of who we are. The Victorian Trades Hall carries a rich history. For more than a century, women have gathered there to organise for fair pay, safer workplaces and the right to participate fully in our economy and our democracy. Standing there on Friday morning, you could feel the long stretch of history surrounding you as the next generation of women take up the fight.

International Women's Day always invites us to reflect on how far we have come. This year the Status of Women Report Card gives us some real reasons to feel encouraged. Australia is now ranked 13th in the world for gender equality. Just four years ago, we were ranked 43rd. Our national gender pay gap has fallen to 11.5 per cent, the lowest ever on record. Those improvements didn't happen by accident. They reflect decades of work by women in unions, community organisations and parliamentarians who pushed for change.

But the report card also reminds us that progress doesn't mean the work is finished. Across my electorate of Melbourne, our communities run on the work of women, but too often the systems around them struggle to reflect the realities of their lives. That was reinforced to me when I met with Carolyn and Wil from the Victorian Trades Hall Council. They came to my office to talk about the union movement called It's for Every Body. We spoke for a long time about the stories they were hearing from workers across Victoria, about how women undergoing IVF had quietly used up their annual leave because they had no other options, about workers returning to their jobs just days after miscarriage because they felt they had no choice. They also described people who had hidden medical appointments from their employers because they were worried it might affect their job security or career progression.

Listening to those stories made something very clear. Our workplaces have changed in many ways, but many of our leave systems were designed for a different time. They assume a worker who never needs reproductive health care, never needs flexibility and never experiences the interruptions that real life can bring. That's why the 'It's for Every Body' campaign is calling for 10 days of paid reproductive health leave. The idea behind it is simple: when someone needs treatment for endometriosis, fertility care or pregnancy loss, that is health care, and health care should never cost someone their job.

This is the same principle guiding the actions of this Labor government. We believe that women shouldn't face barriers to getting the care they need. That is why we are expanding access to cheaper medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, helping to reduce the treatments that many women rely on. Across the country, we are establishing endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics so women can receive earlier diagnosis and proper treatment. For decades many women living with chronic pain were told their symptoms were normal, exaggerated or simply something they had to live with. Too many were dismissed or left waiting years for answers. That culture is changing because women spoke up, shared their experiences and demanded that the system listen.

This government has also acted to protect dignity for families at some of the most difficult moments in life. Last year I spoke in support of Baby Priya's bill. Before that change, some parents who experienced the heartbreak of a stillbirth or the loss of a new child could also lose their employer funded paid parental leave. That meant families facing unimaginable grief could also lose the support they had been promised. The federal Labor government changed that, because equality is not only about opportunity when things are going well; it's also about dignity, compassion and fairness when life becomes incredibly hard.

Of course, health and economic security are only part of the story; safety must always come first. Across Australia, a woman is killed by a current or former partner, on average, every eight days. That number can sound like a statistic, but every one of those eight days is a life—a daughter, a friend, a mother who should still be here. That reality is why the Albanese government has committed more than $4 billion nationally to end gender based violence in one generation. That funding is strengthening frontline services, expanding crisis accommodation and supporting prevention programs that work with communities before violence occurs, in recognition that leaving violence is rarely a single moment—it requires housing, financial security and a support system that walks besides the woman every step of the way. At the same time, the report warns us about new challenges. Abuse through the use of technology is becoming more common, with tracking apps and digital monitoring tools used by predators to control partners. It is a reminder that the fight for equality evolves with the world around us.

Before becoming a parliamentarian, I spent many years working across businesses and community organisations in Melbourne. During that time I was often one of the only women in leadership positions. Around International Women's Day each year, I would often receive the same request: could you come and speak at our International Women's Day event and talk about being a woman in leadership? I would often talk about the first time I heard about subconscious bias. It was like a light-bulb moment. It wasn't something that I could really put my finger on, but once I heard that, I knew what was happening to me. Those conversations stayed with me because the same questions kept coming up: How do we make workplaces fairer? How do we support more women to move into leadership? For me, those questions led me to join EMILY's List. Through that network, I found a community of women who believe something powerful—if we want to see more women in leadership, we have to support each other to get there. Equality does not grow out of patience. It grows when women back each other, when communities organise and when systems are built to give everyone a fair chance.

International Women's Day reminds us that the progress we see today was built by generations before us, from the suffragette movement led by Vida Goldstein here in Melbourne to the union women who organised through Trades Hall and the hundreds of people who rallied at the same great building on Friday. Each generation builds on the work of the last. Today, Australia is making real progress. Our global ranking on gender equality is rising. The gender pay gap is at its lowest level ever recorded, and we are investing in policies that strengthen women's health, safety and economic security. But equality is not a destination we arrive at. It is a commitment we renew again and again, because the measure of a society is not simply how it distributes power; it is how it protects dignity, supports families and ensures that every woman and girl can live safely, work fairly and build the life she chooses. That is the work ahead of us, and it is the work this government will continue to do.

Sitting suspended from 13:31 to 15:59

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