Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last Friday, I sat down with the gorgeous Amelia for a coffee in Camp Hill. Amelia is a young parent raising her child, trying to start up a brand new small business and doing what so many women in our community do every day—holding many responsibilities at once. She's thinking about her child's future, her family, her business, her time and the pressures that come with trying to build a good life. As we spoke about family, work and the daily reality of running a small business, I was reminded how important it is that public policy meets people where they are at. For young parents like Amelia, for example, paid parental leave is part of the support that helps families navigate those early months with a little more security, time and breathing room.

Across Griffith, I hear echoes of Amelia's story all the time from women at school gates, mobile offices, community events, local cafes and small businesses, from students working while they study, from carers supporting older parents and from volunteers keeping our local organisations going. They talk to me about safety, services close to home, wages that reflect the value of their work and a government that sees the full contribution women make to our economy and to our communities. Those conversations are at the heart of the women's budget statement.

The Hawke Labor government introduced the first women's budget statement in the 1980s, and, in 2022, the Albanese Labor government brought it back. For too long, budgets were treated as though they affect everyone in the same way, but decisions about tax, wages, child care, paid parental leave, health care, housing, superannuation and safety can land very differently in women's lives. We brought back the women's budget statement to make those impacts visible and to ensure gender equality is built into economic decision-making from the beginning. Good policy depends on seeing the whole picture—paid work and unpaid care, financial security and safety, health and housing, opportunity today and retirement security tomorrow. We are seeing the results.

Since 2022, women's average weekly earnings have grown by almost $300 a week. More than one million families have benefited from cheaper child care. Australia has recorded its highest ever international ranking for gender equality, moving to 13th in the world, up from 43rd when we came into government. Since 2023, women have also saved more than $647 million across 139 million prescriptions, including through cheaper medicines and expanded access to contraceptives and menopause therapies. That is meaningful progress, and we are ensuring progress reaches women in their daily lives—at work, at home, in caring roles, in study, in business and in moments when they need safety, dignity and support. In Griffith I see what women's leadership looks like every single day, like at the Women's Creative Centre in Greenslopes, which last year celebrated 50 years welcoming generations of women to learn skills, share knowledge, make things with their hands and build friendships. I've seen it in the leadership of Mama Saba OAM, who founded the Eritrean Australian Women's and Families Support Network in West End, helping people from refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds build skills, confidence and community. I've seen it in organisations like the Immigrant Women's Support Service, led by Mitra, and from Deb Kilroy OAM and her team at Sisters Inside. These are two incredible organisations that support women through some of the hardest moments in their lives, with dignity, expertise and so much care. I've seen it from Tamara and Sue, just down the road from my electorate office, at the Queensland Country Women's Association, our state's largest and most widespread women's organisation. And I have seen it in all of our local sporting clubs and communities, including the Southside Eagles, who I joined with the other weekend. Women and girls are claiming space on the field, building confidence, backing each other and helping shape the future of women's sport. These local stories show why the Women's Budget Statement is so needed. When we talk about gender equality, we are talking about real women, real communities and real organisations doing this work every single day.

This budget provides practical support for women and families. From 1 July, every Australian taxpayer will receive more tax cuts to help with cost-of-living pressures. On top of those cuts, we're delivering a new $250 working Australians tax offset. We're introducing a $1,000 instant tax deduction for work related expenses without receipts, which will benefit around 6.2 million working women. For a woman earning around the average wage of $81,000, the combined benefit of our legislated tax cuts, the new tax offset and the instant tax deduction could mean she is nearly $3,000 a year better off from 2027-28 compared with the 2023-24 tax settings. Cheaper child care has already helped more than one million families, and the three-day guarantee will give families access to three days a week of subsidised early childhood education and care. Paid parental leave, something that I discussed at length with Amelia, is also being expanded to reach six months from July this year, where eligible families with a baby born or adopted from July will be $14,000 better off than they would have been in May 2022. These reforms recognise something women have known for a long time: care is work and care supports work. When families can access affordable early learning, when parents can share care more fairly and when women are supported to return to work on their own terms, the whole economy benefits.

We're also investing more than $1 billion in the Support at Home program, supporting women both as unpaid carers of many old people and as the majority of people who use the aged-care services. We are continuing our record investment in women's health. Our government's historic $792.9 million women's health package is already delivering better outcomes, including cheaper medicines and better access to contraceptives and menopause therapies. In this budget we are strengthening Medicare mental health centres where women make up more than 57 per cent of users. We're also investing in perinatal mental health through our expansion of perinatal mental health centres, including at Gidget House in Greenslopes at the Greenslopes Hospital, which is in my electorate. It has been supporting my community with three individual psychological counselling services for expectant, new and potential parents.

At local women's health forums in Griffith that I have held over the last couple of years. I've heard women speak about the importance of being listened to, believed and supported when they seek care. Whether it's in reproductive health, menopause, mental health, pelvic pain, eating disorders or perinatal care, women deserve health services that take their experiences seriously. Women's safety remains a central priority. We've now invested more than $4.4 billion since 2022 towards the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.

This budget also includes $218.3 million to support 'Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices', the first long-term, First-Nations-led national strategy to end family, domestic and sexual violence. We're providing $61.2 million for the 500 Workers Initiative to support the frontline family, domestic and sexual violence response workforce, and $11.7 million to continue the Family Violence and Cross-examination of Parties Scheme. We're also delivering the most substantial changes to the child support system in nearly 20 years, which will reduce the weaponisation of the child support system and help protect women and children from financial abuse.

We know there is more work to do, but progress for women has not happened by accident. It happens when women are in the room, when women are heard and when women help shape the decisions that affect their lives. Under this Labor government, we have a gender-equal cabinet and women proudly make up 56 per cent of the Labor caucus. For too long, women were expected to carry the consequences of decisions they had little power to shape. Women are now in the room, not through tokenism but as leaders, decision-makers and equals. When women help shape the budget, the budget better reflects the lives of the people that it is meant to serve. When our parliament looks more like the communities we serve, our democracy is stronger.

In Griffith, I will keep listening to the women who shape our community every day, because their experiences should guide the decisions we make in this place. When women are safe, paid fairly, able to access health care and able to participate fully in work and community life, our whole community is stronger. That is the purpose of this Women's Budget Statement and that is the work this Labor government will continue to do.

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