Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since entering this place I have been committed to empowering young women in my community to make their mark. Our society is richer when both men and women are involved in decision-making processes and in senior leadership positions. Earlier this year, the Minister for Women joined me in Reid to visit Burwood Girls High School. It was here, surrounded by the portraits of incredible female leaders on the walls of the school hall, that the minister delivered the annual women's policy statement to a room of 300 senior school students—$240 million in measures and programs to specifically support job creation and entrepreneurism as well as women's safety at work and at home and to promote women in STEM. I am pleased that the Burwood Girls High School was the setting for this address. The girls show leadership and excellence in their academic and extracurricular pursuits and through their service to the broader community. The Minister for Women focused on the importance of sustainable progress towards gender equality so that the economic and social reforms to empower women can be intergenerational and ongoing.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic women's workforce participation had reached a record high, and the gender pay gap was at a record low. It's a reminder that our progress towards gender equality cannot be stayed. It must be sustainable, adaptive and flexible.