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

To pick up where I left off, I was reflecting on the fact that today we saw a report come out tracking national attitudes in our community to gendered violence. Unfortunately we see that one in three people who participated in that survey thought women made claims for vengeful reasons of sexual assault and that overall four in 10 people surveyed mistrust reports women make around sexual violence. This is despite the fact that research suggests that 87 per cent of victims-survivors do not tell police and that false allegations are extraordinarily rare. Clearly this is further evidence that we as a community need to do much more to ensure everyone in our community is treated with respect and that we need to work very hard and do all we can to ensure there is meaningful gender equality in workplaces, in communities and in homes right across the nation.

This piece of legislation is one of a number of pieces of legislation that have been put forward by our government to do just that—to address the fact that we don't have gender equality in this country. This bill for the first time will mean the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, WGEA, will report gender pay gaps at an employer level, not just at an industry level. We know we have a lot of work to do in workplaces across the country. Of course, the Set the standard report detailed the ways in which this particular workplace, the Parliament of Australia, needs to improve. But so too before that did the Respect@Work report. I'm really proud to be in a government that made a commitment to implement every single one of the recommendations in the report to ensure women have the best chance of being safe at work. But there will always be more work for us to do, because culture is something we always need to be vigilant about, making sure the high standards Australians rightly expect and deserve are maintained.

Through capturing more information at an employer level this bill will mean WGEA is able to give us more data that helps us get closer to closing the gender pay gap. We're at 13.3 per cent as of February this year, which is an improvement from where we were earlier, at 14.1 per cent. But at the current rate of progress, estimates indicate it could take as long as 26 years to close the gender pay gap, and that is simply not good enough. Improving workplace gender equality is absolutely critical. Everybody deserves fair and safe working conditions, and working women deserve equal opportunity and equal remuneration. I'm really proud to be part of a government that has ensured through reforms to industrial relations that feminised industries such as the care sector will finally be able to access the remuneration those workers so sorely deserve and so sorely need to keep up with the rising costs of living.

There are some pretty stark statistics on Australia's track record here, and I think it's important to be honest about where we stand. I'm a big believer that sunlight is the best disinfectant, so airing this information can only be good for us in taking the necessary steps to address the problem of gender inequality we have in this country. We came 43rd on the World Economic Forum's global gender gap index, and we've gone backwards over the last 10 years, which is really shameful. The median undergraduate starting salary for women is 3.9 per cent lower than for men, despite the fact that women graduate in greater numbers from university courses. Something we should be able to celebrate is that we have the fourth-highest number of women graduates in the world coming through our university system, but what makes it difficult to celebrate is the fact that, once they go through the university system, they're already starting from behind in the workforce. As I said, they earn on average 3.9 per cent less than men.

Women's super balances are 23.1 per cent lower than men's. Older women are the fastest-growing cohort of people who experience homelessness. And women over 60 are the lowest earning of all demographic groups nationally. Women's workforce participation consistently lags behind men's by eight to nine percentage points. We've put in some measures to address the workforce participation issue, such as making child care cheaper and ensuring that we have more flexible provisions for paid parental leave, but this is a serious problem in our communities.

There are enormous economic costs, as well as the social costs, of gender inequality. Addressing gender based violence in Australia currently costs us $26 billion a year. I began this continuation of my speech by reflecting on the fact that the attitudes in the community are still below what I think Australian women deserve in terms of the problems that face us. Gendered financial abuse is estimated to cost $10.9 billion a year. Sexual harassment costs $3.8 billion a year. The gender pay gap represents $51.8 billion a year. These statistics were featured in the scorecard that our government put out on International Women's Day. They are a stark set of figures that remind us of the work we need to do. This bill represents the work that is being done by the Albanese Labor government, a government I'm very proud to be part of. I am one of the 52 per cent of women who sit in our government party room, which is a historic first.

It's always difficult to speak on bills such as this because of course we want to celebrate the progress that we've made collectively as a nation in ensuring that women have opportunities. We want to acknowledge those who've come before us and laid the path that so many of us in this place have been able to tread—people like former prime minister Julia Gillard and former Speakers Joan Child and Anna Burke. We also need to reflect on the fact that we are still not as equal as we could be—that too many women live in poverty, that too many women experience gendered violence and that too many women are not listened to when they come forward with those claims. So this bill represents us doing the difficult work that needs to be done, as one of many steps that we are taking to bring about meaningful gender equality in homes and workplaces across the country. Our housing policy understands the fact that we need to have more crisis accommodation for women and children escaping gendered violence situations in the home. We understand that we need to do more to ensure that women are able to return to the workforce after perhaps taking time out to have children.

This work is not easy—changing culture is not easy—but I'm proud to be part of an Albanese Labor government that is determined to do the work that this country needs to be done and to have a prime minister who is so supportive of the work that needs to be done. I am really proud to support this bill, which will mean that there are some practical things that will happen to both track the gender pay gap in this country and give us the information we need to take further action in the future so that the next generation of women to end up in this place don't have to make the same kinds of speeches that we've been hearing for years about this persistent gender pay gap.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very sad to report to this House that the 2022 Global gender gap report ranked Australia 43rd in the world for gender equality. This is patently too low for a wealthy country that claims equality as an Australian virtue. I was also sad to hear just now from the member for Chisholm about the reports on unreconstructed gender attitudes here in Australia. It's just not good enough. The overall gender pay gap worsened during COVID. The figures, I understand, are at 22.8—a bit different from what you've said but still appalling. I guess it depends on how it's measured. It's not good enough. It's absolutely urgent that the gap closes rather than widens again.

We Greens have called for a number of reforms towards achieving this, measures like extending coverage to public and private sector organisations with more than 50 employees; measuring, which means actually looking at whether existing policies are implemented and what impact they are really having; publishing employer data of pay levels rather than just general sector-by-sector reportage; requiring real action, making employers actually take action to close the gender pay gap, and making the employers who are not doing this ineligible for government grants and contracts; requiring reportage, making employers publish the number of sexual harassment complaints made and what action is taken in response; collecting intersectional data to identify hurdles for particular groups of women; and designing targeted approaches to addressing specific pay gaps.

Some of these recommendations are being implemented in this bill and the revised minimum standards instruments. It's encouraging to see that the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 will require the WGEA to publish employer-level gender pay gap data, will require relevant employers to report to their governing bodies and will recognise sexual harassment and discrimination as gender equality indicators. It's also encouraging that the new minimum standards instruments provide for more detailed reporting to bridge the gap between policy and action. So it's great that we're taking these important steps towards transparency, accountability and reporting of the gender pay gap. As my colleague Senator Larissa Waters has noted, you cannot fix a problem you do not understand, and you cannot understand a problem without clear, consistent and meaningful data.

Today I want to take this opportunity to talk about the bigger picture of what we urgently need to really address the gender pay gap and gender inequality in Australia. Firstly, we need real above-inflation wage rises in feminised industries like nursing and cleaning, not just lip-service to that. We need paid parental leave of 12 months, with super contributions and provision to ensure more equal sharing of care between partners. And we desperately need universal free child care for every family, not complex or overwrought, means-tested subsidised systems. We urgently need to build enough public housing and crisis accommodation so that every woman has a secure place to call home. I note that currently Labor's offer on housing is going to see more women in need of affordable housing by the end of that policy than currently. I think that that's just not good enough. We also need to raise income support above the poverty line, and we absolutely need to reverse the Gillard government's decision to cut parents off the single parent payment when their child turns eight and punt them onto the much lower JobSeeker payment. Single parents should remain eligible for this additional support until their youngest child is 16.

All this would give all women the economic and social security and independence needed to live flourishing lives, to not have to choose between family and career, to be valued for the work they do, to escape situations of domestic violence. We welcome this bill as a positive step and urge the government to use its promised second tranche of reforms to implement the outstanding recommendations from the WGEA review and drive the change that all employees deserve.

Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand and look around this place and I am proud of what I see. I am proud that I am part of history. I am proud that I am part of a majority female government. We are making lives better for women across Australia. The Albanese Labor government includes women. It listens to women. It represents women. And, most importantly, it respects women. This is why we are working to improve what women are paid, to correct a longstanding societal wrong, a situation that has seen women paid far less than men for decades, even for doing the same job.

We are taking action to bring women's pay in line with their male colleagues through the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023. We have released Australia's first Status of Women Report Card, which reveals where progress on gender equality has sadly been lacking and which also highlights where we need more focus to spark improvements. The report card highlights the many challenges Australian women face. These challenges start young and have remained a burden throughout life. The report card reveals that through their youth and young adulthood, and continuing into their working lives, there are hurdles along the way.

There are some fascinating statistics, although some of these may not be all that surprising to women. One in two women have been sexually harassed. That's compared to one in four men. Women do more unpaid housework than men, and that is even when they are the primary breadwinners. Women 55 and older are the fastest-growing group of people experiencing homelessness. Another statistic that is worth highlighting is that 30 per cent of Australian men do not believe that gender inequality exists. That is more than the world average of 21 per cent, and that belief is despite all the facts and all the research to support the cold, hard reality of the gender pay gap.

We know gender inequality absolutely does exist, and that is why we are taking action to fix it, because workplace gender equality is good for Australia's economy. Supporting women is good for Australia's economy, and it's good for Australian families. The gender pay gap alone represents a cost of $51.8 billion a year. We know that current projections tell us that it will take roughly 26 years to close the gender pay gap. That is a very long time. But I am proud that we are taking this head-on for our daughters, for their daughters and for the generations of women who will continue to drive our nation's economy in all industries, including in the STEM sectors.

Recently the United Nations announced that, at the current rate of progress, it will take almost 300 years to achieve gender equality worldwide. In order to make progress, we will legislate to publish the pay gaps of employers with 100 or more employees, which will, for want of a better expression, air the dirty gender pay gap laundry. Our government has also made gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act. We prohibited the use of pay secrecy clauses, which have been a stealth weapon to stop women finding out that they are being paid less than their male colleagues. Publishing pay gaps of employers is about transparency, and this transparency should and must prompt change.

Research supports that publishing pay gaps does help spark change. Across the globe, in the United Kingdom, they have reported employer-level gender pay gaps for the past six years, since 2017. Evidence from the United Kingdom shows that publishing those pay gaps led to companies prioritising gender equality. It also led to a reduction in the gender pay gap. This is all about fairness and the need for fairness.

Under these new measures, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency will publish the first set of private sector employer gender pay gaps early next year, which is 2024. Using data from the reporting period which ends on 31 March—the day after tomorrow, this Friday—employers won't be required to collect any new data for public reporting. Statistics will draw on data already provided to the agency by employers. They can, though, provide a statement to explain context related to their gender pay gap and any actions they are taking to fix it. This will all be published on the WGEA's website, along with gender pay gap information.

The measures in this bill will have an additional benefit of strengthening WGEA's ability to support employers in their efforts to progress gender equality in their organisations. Publishing pay gaps is also about showcasing those employers who are doing well for women and who are paying women equally. This measure will bring women a step closer to being paid what they deserve. The cold hard facts are that women earn 87c for every dollar that men earn and that we earn $263 less a week than men.

Gender pay equality is an important issue for the women in my electorate of Pearce. The current pay gap for women across Australia is 14.1 per cent. I stand here and say that we will not accept sitting back and doing nothing to right the historical wrongs of gender inequality, including gender pay inequality. Inequality is clearly evident in all industries and changing the record, changing for a better future for women and our economy, is something that the Albanese Labor government is making an absolute priority. This bill is a first step. This bill puts at the feet of employers that need for greater accountability in gender equality in their workforces. We want to look at how the Workforce Gender Equality Agency can help us, firstly, to understand and then to close the gender pay gap. The government is committed to these changes, which include the addition of a new gender equality standard. This will require employers with more than 500 employees to commit to and reach specific targets. Those employers will also be required to report their progress against these necessary targets directly to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

We are committed to this bill, and also committed to making sure that the changes are achieved through close consultation with businesses and stakeholders. Consultation, without doubt, is critical. This bill has been designed in close consultation with industry, business, the education sector, the not-for-profit sector, employee organisations, the women's sector, state and territory governments, and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. We have also committed to reviewing these legislative amendments, and this is planned for five years after the amendments are passed. This will be an opportunity to probe robustly the effectiveness of these issues in achieving their objective to progress gender equality.

The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 seeks to address the fact that gender equality is, without doubt, a human right. This bill, in conjunction with our National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality, as well as the Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation, the Respect@Work legislation, improvements for families and gender equality legislation passed by this government will help Australia on the path to being among the best countries in the world for equality. As well as those things, our Paid Parental Leave scheme, which has passed the Senate, gives more families access to payments and gives parents increased flexibility in how they take leave. It encourages parents to share care, which promotes gender equality. These changes support women's workforce participation and help more dads and partners to take time off work to be with their children: true equality.

All these measures are being taken because the Albanese government values and respects women, and is working to ensure that they can contribute to keep the economy strong whilst receiving fair pay.

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

From the outset, I note my support for the count workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, and that of the opposition. Put simply, the pay for men and women should be equal for those doing the same job with the same qualifications and experience. I didn't think that I would necessarily quote from President Obama, but I do note that way back in 2013-14, in his State of the Union speech, he declared that a woman deserves equal pay for equal work. It's quite extraordinary that even in those times such a declaration needed to be made. But, globally, we have made some progress since then, with women achieving the highest levels in all sorts of occupations.

I can remember my first corporate job, probably more than 20 years ago. I was very ambitious and very young, working really hard. Then one day I was told by my boss that I was earning $20,000 a year less than my male counterpart. We were in the same role, and I have to say that it changed pretty quickly, but it took one boss to make that change. At that time it wasn't an organisational thing to do that. It shouldn't take one boss to stand up for a woman in the workplace; it should just be like that.

I retain that work ethic to this day, and I'll continue to stand up and fight for this cause—and for those right across my community as well—when I meet fantastic women. But your position and your pay shouldn't have anything to do with your gender these days. It's quite extraordinary that we're in 2023 and we are still talking about this, because we've been talking about this for a very long time.

When I was director of the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney, I ran a women in leadership initiative. At the time, I'd written an op-ed for the ABC on gender equality issues, which might be surprising as well. I was looking back on some notes, and I had written at the time that the global gender pay gap was 23c in the dollar, and now, according to Forbes, it's 17c. At that time, the US government was appointing well-qualified women to top positions. When this occurs it sets a standard, and that standard sets earnings and positively impacts the gender pay gap and does reduce inequality.

The Australian government's Workplace Gender Equality Agency says the national pay gap currently stands at 13.3 per cent. That figure is from November 2022. The average weekly pay for women was $1,653.60, compared to $1,907.10 for men. That's a $253.50 difference, equating to over $13,000 each year. That is an extraordinary amount.

The gender pay gap had improved from the May 2022 to November 2022 period in every sector analysed by the agency except financial services—funnily enough, going back those 20 years, I was working in financial services —administrative services, construction, the arts, mining, utilities and waste services, and accommodation and food services.

As a member in the previous parliament, I was keen to see the recommendations of the coalition government's review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act. The review was an initiative of the former government in 2021, and this bill implements in part or in full the recommendations of that review. I note that the coalition government did publicly agree to implement each of the recommendations and delivered over $18 million to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to support the implementation of that review. The review was released in March of last year and made a firm conclusion that Australia's gender pay gap was not closing at a fast enough rate. Unfortunately, through 2021 and 2022 there was a stalling of the gender pay gap.

The review considered whether the Workplace Gender Equality Agency had the powers and instruments it needed to assist in making a positive difference to the lives of so many women across Australia by closing the gender pay gap. The review laid out 10 recommendations to ensure the rate at which the gender pay gap could be closed would happen more rapidly to reduce inequality and to reduce certain reporting mechanisms by businesses to the agency. Measures outlined in the bill seek to implement in part or in full the following recommendations from the review. Recommendation 2 was to publish organisation gender pay gaps to accelerate action to close them. I think that's a really good thing. Recommendation 3 was to bridge the 'action gap' with new gender equality standards. Recommendation 5 was to support Respect@Work implementation to prevent and address workplace sex-based harassment and discrimination. Recommendation 9 was to set WGEA up for future success to support employers to drive gender equality in Australian workplaces.

I understand there's been some consultation by government on the bill with key groups, including employee organisations, the business sector, not-for-profit sectors, higher education providers, users of the agency's datasets and the Commonwealth, state and territory government agencies. I note collaboration on the bill with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Diversity Council of Australia, the Business Council of Australia, Business and Professional Women and the National Council of Women.

The bill includes six amendments to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, including: requiring the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to publish the gender pay gap information of relevant employers of over 100 people for each reporting period; requiring relevant employers to provide an executive summary and industry benchmark reports to all members of the governing body; renaming the current 'minimum standards' as 'gender equality standards'; including sexual harassment and harassment on the ground of sex or discrimination as gender equality indicators; changing the title of 'director' of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to the 'chief executive officer'; and a technical amendment to the definition of the reporting period.

I also note the legislation was sent to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee for a short review. I thank my Liberal Party, Labor and Greens colleagues and the committee secretariat for their work on the report, which was recently presented.

I acknowledge the work on this bill and policy by the Liberal Party's deputy leader and shadow minister for women, the honourable member for Farrer. I would also like to make a few comments about the former coalition government's work in the space of women's economic security, safety and health. The previous government led with the review which is informing the amendments in the bill, and previous ministers like Senator Marise Payne, Senator Anne Ruston, Senator Jane Hume and former senator Amanda Stoker were heavily involved.

The coalition government, from 2013 to 2022, had a strong track record of jobs. Around 1.9 million were created, of which 60 per cent were taken up by women. Female workforce participation jumped by 3.5 per cent to a record high of 62.2 per cent, with a similar drop in the gender pay gap since the Rudd and Gillard governments. In the two previous budgets, there was an incredible $5.5 billion to drive women's leadership, safety, workforce participation and health outcomes. Also, let's not forget the almost 300,000 more children in child care, which assisted more women in being able to get back to work. We saw a near doubling of support for families accessing child care to $11 billion this financial year from $6.2 billion at the end of the second Rudd government.

In the 2022 budget, the coalition committed to an additional $1.3 billion to tackle domestic and family violence. Just as a note on that—and I don't like highlighting it, but I also feel like every time I talk about domestic violence I should highlight it—Penrith in my community of Lindsay always, unfortunately, tops the list when it comes to domestic violence in the state of New South Wales. From community organisations to government, we all have a role to play in stopping this. It breaks my heart every time I think about the actual people behind these statistics and I vow that I will do everything I can while I'm in parliament to make a change.

In the 2022 budget, we had that $1.3 billion and we also did some really good work on the mental health challenges that can impact women, particularly girls, very differently to men. We know the impact that social media has on young people. We have seen terrible reports recently about social media and violence to do with young people. I think we as members of parliament should be addressing this quite seriously.

Just as before I wrap up I would like to say that, in the last women's budget statement, the coalition proudly led with further investment in breast screening and funding for outreach of breast cancer services. We also sought to invest in cervical screening and funding for work in reducing pre-term births. A lot of work was done in that time. I would like to acknowledge, again, that it is women that show leadership, like women in this place, and lead by example that inspire young women to take up careers in politics and other traditionally male dominated fields, such as the automotive industry or manufacturing. I know when I go out to my schools I feel really positive about the work that is in place now in schools that certainly wasn't there when I was at school to get more young girls into STEM and having aspirations and beliefs that they can absolutely achieve anything, including going to space. I feel strongly about ensuring we have strong manufacturing industries in this country when it comes to Australia's future in the space industry. I acknowledge that the administrator for NASA was here in Canberra just last week, inspiring a new generation.

The final words I want to say are: we have come some way since the words that I wrote in 2014, but we have a long way to go. I sincerely hope this bill helps us get there.

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023. Closing the gender pay gap is important for women. It's important for women to be valued as equal, to be remunerated as equal, to be considered the equal of men. But closing the gender pay gap is about more than making sure women are paid and valued fairly; it's also about men, about businesses and about community. I'm the first woman to ever represent Dunkley in the federal parliament.

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hear, hear!

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Member for Lindsay! It's something I'm very proud of. My electorate of Dunkley, as many people have heard me say before, is named after a woman called Louisa Dunkley, so I'm even prouder to be the first woman to represent an electorate named after a woman—a woman who was a worker, who was a feminist and who was a unionist, and who, at the turn of the last century, campaigned for equal pay for men and women in the Victorian post and telegraph office and then took that campaign national when Australia became a country after Federation, and campaigned for women and men in the brand new Commonwealth post and telegraph office to receive the same pay for the same work. It seems almost obvious to most of us in 2023 that two people sitting next to each other doing the same work with the same qualifications at the same standard should be paid the same. But that wasn't the case for much of Australia's history, and it certainly wasn't the case when Louisa Dunkley worked in the post and telegraph office. She was almost single-handedly responsible for the fact that the Commonwealth Public Service Act 1902 had a provision in it for equal pay for men and women in the Commonwealth post and telegraph service.

But Louisa didn't see equal pay as just about women; she saw it as about something more. In one of the few pieces of her writing, which was renowned as brilliant and insightful and which changed many people's minds on the subject of work and women and equality—one of the few remaining pieces of her writing that made it through a fire at the union headquarters in the early 1900s—she said: 'Though at first we only ask for equal pay as an act of justice to those women who had been doing the same work as men, we now advocate it as the only solution as to how to keep up the value of work and provide fair opportunities for employment of both men and women in the future.' Closing the gender pay gap is about fairly remunerating women and valuing the work of women, and providing women fair opportunities in the workplace, but it is also about valuing the work because the work itself isn't gendered and the gender of the person doing the work shouldn't dictate the value of it and how much people are paid for doing it.

Like many of the women in this parliament who talk about the gender pay gap—perhaps some men, too, when they talk about the gender pay gap—I often get emails from constituents saying: 'What gender pay gap? That doesn't exist. It's unlawful to pay men and women differently in Australia.' They're right about one thing: it is unlawful to pay men and women differently in Australia based on their gender now. But they are very wrong when they say there is no gender pay gap.

It's currently a gap of about 13.3 per cent, as reported by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in February of this year. It was stuck at about 20 per cent for quite some time, and there has been a reduction. That is in part because of a long period of stagnation of wages and suppression of men's wages, particularly in higher paid industries such as mining, which closed the gender pay gap without actually increasing pay for women, and it is in part because of some of the reforms brought in by successive governments over the last two decades or so. So it is now down to 13.3 per cent.

What that means in practice is that for every dollar a man earns a woman earns 87c. It's based on a calculation of average weekly ordinary earnings. Women's average weekly ordinary earnings, across all industries and occupations, is $1,653, and men's average ordinary full-time earnings across all industries is $1,907—a gap of $253.50 a week. That's the gender pay gap. That's women being valued less in the workplace, women getting fewer promotions, than men. What that calculation—average weekly ordinary full-time earnings—doesn't take into account is bonuses, overtime payments and superannuation. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency estimates that the gender pay gap is about five per cent worse if you take those things into account.

What the gender pay gap also doesn't take into account is what happens when you look at part-time and casual workers, who often work in the lowest paid industries and who are often women. The other thing we know is that feminised industries are the lowest paid industries in this country and are almost exclusively, but not exclusively, care industries, where people are engaged in work—like caring for children, the elderly, the sick who can't work and people with disabilities—that traditionally was done at home, was done by women and was underpaid and undervalued. Now that that work is done in a professional sense, it remains predominantly carried out by women, and it remains underpaid and undervalued.

This legislation is just one of the measures that are intended to encourage businesses to be conscious of the way they are paying their staff, the way they are deciding who gets a promotion and who doesn't, and the way bonuses and overtime are paid. Not all decisions which favour men over women are made consciously. Unconscious bias is something that we are all subjected to. It is human nature that people favour those who remind them of themselves, often subconsciously. In many workplaces, traditionally, and it remains the case today, when the upper executive are men, often men from one socioeconomic group—often white men, in this country—they choose to promote and to have join them in their ranks other men. They choose to employ men who remind them of themselves at a young age. They are not necessarily doing it in a conscious, sexist manner. Sometimes, probably, they are, and we've all lived through examples of that, but it's often because of this unconscious bias.

If you never take account of the pay gap between men and women in your organisation, if you never do an audit of men and women at senior ranks and extend that to talk about men and women from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, or people with disability, then you often don't know that actually your workplace reflects only one group of people. Legislation like this, which asks businesses to consciously audit their pay across genders and report it, is a way to overcome both the conscious and unconscious bias, the systemic discrimination which still exists in this country—a country where a man in his early 20s has more chance of being a CEO of an ASX listed company than a woman in her 50s. What it does is help to send a signal from that business and to that business that equality is important and that women's work is as valuable as men's and women are as valuable as men. I'd like to think, in the vein of Louisa Dunkley, that it also sends a signal about the value of work. It's about valuing the people that do the work and it's about valuing the work.

I want to finish by giving what I think is a very concrete example of the impact of the gender pay gap, feminised industries being lower paid and some of the structural barriers preventing women from being able to have children and continue to work, which we haven't yet quite worked out how to overcome with flexibility. Last week I was part of a forum held by Pink Hope, which is an organisation that provides support and assistance to women who have a high chance of having breast cancer and promotes assistance for women with rarer types of breast cancer. This forum was about women who have triple-negative breast cancer, which means that the type of cancer they have is not receptive to any type of hormone—it doesn't feed off a hormone—which makes it much harder to treat than hormone receptor-positive breast cancers.

It's a particularly diabolical type of breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer. Not only is it harder to treat; it occurs most frequently in women under the age of 40. The mortality rate for women with triple-negative breast cancer is astronomically higher than for women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, and it's much more likely to be metastatic when it is found. The forum talked about treatment, because, with treatment for triple-negative breast cancer, we're at the stage where it needs to be very targeted. As I understand it—in my layperson's scientific understanding—the best targeted treatment at the moment hasn't been through our system in Australia and approved by PBAC, so it costs tens of thousands of dollars to be able to access it. It is being prescribed to women, particularly young women, with triple-negative breast cancers, and with some success, but they can only get it if they can afford to pay $20,000.

What this forum really took the lid off was the fact that the inequality of financial resources was also impacting these women. It's bad enough that, in a country like Australia, if you're from a certain suburb or wealthy then you can afford $20,000 for treatment, but, if you come from a more working-class area and don't have access to funds, then you can't afford it, and so one person's life will be longer and somewhat better than another person's. Add to that being a woman around 40 or under the age of 40. It's a peak time, when they're probably just taking time out of the workforce to have children and when they haven't had the promotions that get them the money that men often get. Often they work in feminised industries, which are lower paid and have less superannuation to draw on. Then this medical issue becomes a gendered issue because women can't afford to pay for the medicine. It's a terrible situation, but it's an example that shows why it is so crucial that we close the gender pay gap, lift the pay for women in feminised industries and lift the ability of women to work and have families, as well as making sure that people can access the care that they need through our health system.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I give the call to the most honourable member for Monash.

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much. That is a very generous offer. I think I've said enough, but I appreciate that, member for Monash.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Monash for your comments. It sounds like you would like to have a case about unpaid work at home. I welcome you to introduce a bill to the House if you would like to do that! I will also point out my family circumstances: I'm married, I have a husband and my husband is the lead parent. I have to say that I think that we are equally good parents; if anything, my husband's an excellent lead parent. I think the perception that women are the natural nurturers is something that needs to be challenged and I think that modern men are rising up to the challenge. We need to see more of that, and I am very grateful for the great work my husband is doing at home.

Last year, Australians wanted to change the country, so they changed the government. There were a couple of key issues in some electorates, including integrity in government, action on climate change and women's rights. Under the coalition government, the rights of women were undermined, and I suspect this was because the coalition was run by a bunch of misogynists. Abbott thought the housewives of Australia were stuck at home ironing. Turnbull's attitudes were more modern, but he did need to implement the 'bonk ban'. And then we have the member for Cook, who, despite having a wife and daughter, didn't quite get it. In fact, I spoke to a woman who was previously a Liberal candidate, and she could not bring herself to vote for the Liberals in the last election. The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government had a tin ear when it came to challenges that face women—and boy have there been some challenges.

On International Women's Day this year, the status of women report card was released. Despite some minor progress, we are still seeing economic disparity between men and women, and that persists. And it's not for lack of effort either. Women do two more hours of work than men per week. That's 55 hours a week, and 34.7 of these hours are unpaid. Also, Australian women are well educated. Sixty-three per cent have postschool qualifications, and 35 per cent have bachelor degrees, which is fourth place in of the OECD countries.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Could I interrupt the contribution from the member for Swan? I see that the member for Forde is seeking the cal.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that the member withdraw her earlier comment. I'm not going to repeat it, for the sake of the dignity of the House, but the member for Swan knows exactly what she just said.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To assist the House, I think the opposition whip may be referring to one of the opening comments. For the sake of Hansard, I give the member for Swan the call.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw the comments.

Yet women's average weekly ordinary earnings across all occupations are about $1,650. Men's average weekly ordinary earnings are about $1,900. That's about $250 less than men each week. The national pay gap on a base salary is about 13 per cent. It has been 54 years since the equal pay for equal work test case was lodged in the Conciliation and Arbitration commission. Selda Defano, a clerk with the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union, chained herself to the front doors of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission with a sign saying 'No more male and female rates One rate only'. We only have one rate today, but the pay gap still persists. This struggle has taken too long, and each year we only see incremental changes. Our struggle only succeeds when we bring daylight to these issues. I will read a text message from a constituent of mine: 'On a project I spent a long time being paid less and doing more work than someone else on the team. We were supposed to be with the same title but there was the difference between our professional backgrounds. They were a tradesperson and I was a professional engineer, so I felt I should be paid as much as that man or, if not, more.'

You find this stuff out by accident and you are not even supposed to talk about it openly. In one of my previous workplaces, two of my colleagues started dating and, in time, my female colleague discovered the pay gap compared to her partner's. Once she did, she negotiated a pay rise. Finally, I remember a conversation with another engineer at a famous bar in Western Australia called the Belgian Beer Cafe. This male and female engineer had met at university and decided to have kids. They talked about who would stay at home and do the parental duties. The decision was that the bloke earned more so, therefore, she would become the stay-at-home parent, which she did for at least 14 years. If there was no pay gap, I wonder what the decision would have been?

There is research on how women and men approach selection criteria when they apply for jobs. If men don't meet all the selection criteria, there is a tendency for them to go, 'Whatever, I will go for it. I will be able to, you know, bluff my way through this.' Women, if they don't meet the selection criteria, are less likely to apply for the job and so don't necessarily get those opportunities to increase their salaries. Again, historical research on gender and negotiation skills has also shown that women are less comfortable asking for a pay rise. However, more recent research indicates that when women are asking for more pay, they are not receiving what they are asking for.

The gender pay gap is about 19 per cent where there is an individually negotiated agreement compared to 13 per cent for those on awards and collective agreements. Pay transparency brings disparity to light and has been recommended by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency for quite some time. But that transparency shouldn't have to come through co-workers dating. When people see numbers, they can identify the problem and put measures in to overcome the disparity in negotiated pay.

Women and men often find themselves in different types of work, and the nature of that work can often be very different, including the pay. Women make up 96 per cent of hours worked by child carers. About 87 per cent of hours worked by registered nurses are female. Again, women make up about 80 per cent of primary school teachers. The pay is not reflective of the essential nature of this work. Early childhood educators often have degrees but sometimes they leave and can make six-figure salaries driving trucks in mines. I have to say, the work that early childhood educators do is essential and I could not do this work in this place if it wasn't for the pattern of the carers who look after my children.

I agree with the comments from the minister for industrial relations. As a government, we have a commitment to get wages moving again, particularly in low-paid, female-dominated sectors, like early childhood education. I was proud to have supported the secure jobs, better pay bill last year, and we have gender equity included as an objective of the Fair Work Act because it should not be a case of either/or. Pink collar workers deserve rates that are reflective of the work they do and that are more in line with the rates of with blue-collar workers, such as truck drivers, plumbers, carpenters and bricklayers because both are equally as important to our society.

We also see pay gaps in leadership positions. In the ASX 200 there are only 14 female CEOs. Male CEOs earn almost $1 million more than female CEOs. Of the top 10 highest paid CEOs in Australia, only one is a woman, and she's at Macquarie Group. Across the country, the highest paid men are earning at least $162,000 more than the highest paid women, though it is worth noting that these workers are receiving wage increases nine times those of ordinary workers and they're earning 132 times more than the average Australian worker.

Women in all industries across all classes are earning less than their male colleagues. When we shine a light on these issues, we know that it spurs organisations to act on the pay disparity and it empowers women to negotiate for better pay. In reflecting on this bill, I also thought about my friend who worked for a resources company. She wanted to have the confidence that her pay was comparable to that of her male colleagues. She said to the HR person: 'How do I know that I'm getting paid a fair salary?' The response was: 'Just trust us.' What this bill does is compel organisations to report data on pay based on gender. This bill creates a mechanism that shines a light on these issues, because we can't just rely upon trust; we need to fix the system. This bill also introduces new provisions requiring the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to publish gender pay gap information of employers with more than 100 people.

If you don't measure it, you can't manage it. The Labor Party fundamentally understands this. Labor introduced quotas. The Labor Party brought targets into our rules in the 1990s. At that time, women represented 14 per cent of the federal Labor caucus. The first target set was 35 per cent, and then it was raised to 40 per cent in the early 2000s. Since the 2015 national conference, it has been lifted to 45 per cent. In 2025 it will be 50 per cent. But today 50 per cent of my colleagues are females. We did that because we put targets in place.

This bill will also require relevant employers to circulate reports on their gender equality performance to their governing bodies. We can't bridge the divide on our own. We need organisations to be aware of the task ahead and to discuss it. This bill gives effect to the 2022 election commitment to closing the gender pay gap at work and to deliver pay equity. Also, by boosting transparency and encouraging action to close pay gaps, each iteration of the election commitments indicates that the reform will apply to employers of 250 people more and be phased in. Our policy involved a response to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency review and the commitment to bring in gender pay gap reporting for businesses of 100 people, and it was included as an outcome of the Jobs and Skills Summit. This will draw attention to the shortcomings of specific workplaces. This bill reports gender pay gaps at the employer level, not just the industry level. International experience shows that if we bring attention to these issues we will get wages moving.

I'll also point out that this bill is part of a suite of policies. I know that some organisations want to continue to improve gender equality. At the beginning of this speech I explained how the coalition had a lack of understanding of all the issues facing women. Employers are thinking about how to have more inclusive workplaces. It's very competitive to get a graduate position as an engineer. I remember one of my a former bosses, John Ganser. He talked about this group exercise. He had this brilliant engineer, but when my boss saw the way in which he interacted with women in that team, he realised that that person was a misogynist and that he would not be appropriate for the workplace. He did not get the job, despite being academically brilliant. Behaviours are really important. One of the things I also note is we now have a positive requirement for workplaces to make sure workplaces are free from sexual harassment.

I'd like the women of Australia to know that the Albanese Labor government wants women to achieve their full potential, and that includes their full earning potential. As my constituent told me, the cumulative effect of a lifetime of less pay is huge for women. Less savings and less compounding power magnifies the gap. For the maths lesson in the room, this is referring to compound interest. Compound interest has this wonderful effect of having an exponential increase, but what happens when you don't have the same income? The gap increases exponentially.

I commend this bill to the House, and I am proud to be part of a government that is getting on with the job and bridging the gender pay gap.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

TEGGALL () (): I rise to support the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023. The bill seeks to improve workplace gender equality by committing to closing the gender pay gap and implementing recommendations 2, 3, 5 and 9 of the 2021 review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. The effect is to improve data collection and reporting of the current state of the gender pay gap in Australia. We know that sunlight is the best disinfectant, so it's hoped that greater exposure and transparency of the gender pay gap issue will drive improved action to address it. But there are certainly further steps that can be taken.

I have to say: it is deeply frustrating that here we are in 2023 still having a debate about gender pay equality, still in a situation where the gap is staying stubbornly wide. There is a lack of accountability, transparency and change. It is so frustrating that we are still so far from pay equality. This pay inequality is compounded over the years and the working life of a woman. We know the superannuation gap is not narrowing. We know women aged over 55 are the fastest-growing group facing homelessness due to their financial circumstances. We must start somewhere, and I commend this bill for approaching some aspects of it but there is a lot more to be done.

Where are we at? Recent research from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows that the gender pay gap in Australia in 2023 is impacting women across every industry, in every occupation and at every age or life stage. The current overall national gender pay gap sits at 14.1 per cent; that is 0.3 per cent higher than six months ago. We're not heading in the right direction. Women, on average, earn $263.90 less per week than men. This difference, combined with cost-of-living pressures, is placing really significant stress on Australian households, particularly for single parents.

KPMG estimates that the unequal distribution of household and child-rearing labour is responsible for some 39 per cent of the gap—something that a strong paid parental leave scheme can improve. It also means that everyone needs to lean in a little more. We need to make sure this is a whole-of-society issue to ensure we do better. Adding part-time workers' data widens the gender pay gap for all employees to 29.7 per cent. Some of the largest gaps are in professional, scientific and technical services, and healthcare and financial and insurance services—some of the biggest employment sectors in Warringah for my community. Perhaps most disappointing is that, despite all the talk and rhetoric and policy intervention, the gap has closed by only five per cent since 1983—so 40 years to reach five per cent. It is just unacceptable.

This bill purports to implement, in part or in full, recommendations 2, 3, 5 and 9 of the review. In reality, however, it only addresses those recommendations in part. It is mystifying to me and to many why it does not address them in full; that really is a question for the government.

Added to this, there are other recommendations of the review which could also have been included but aren't, in particular recommendation 7, which tightens up the reporting requirements and, importantly, recommends amending the act in line with ABS standards to collect data on non-binary people. Again, it's mystifying why the bill only does half the job, thereby wasting a valuable opportunity.

Per recommendation 2, the bill requires the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to publish gender pay gap information of relevant employers for each reporting period whilst at the same time including provisions protecting confidential data relating to individuals. We have recommendation 3, titled, 'Bridge the "action gap" with new gender equality standards'. This contains two recommendations.

Recommendation 3.2 has been implemented through this bill, requiring relevant employers to provide executive summary reports and industry benchmark reports to their board or governing body and report the date on which this is done. Recommendation 3.1, on the other hand, is only partly addressed. That is that the instrument be amended to do three things:

a. add a new minimum standard to require relevant employers with 500 or more employees to commit to, achieve and report to WGEA on measurable genuine targets to improve gender equality in their workplace against three of the six gender equality indicators

The bill doesn't address this, so I ask the minister and the government: why not?

b. strengthen the existing minimum standards to require relevant employers with 500 or more employees to have policies or strategies that cover all six gender equality indicators …

Again, this bill does not address these recommendations; why not?

c. rename the minimum standards to be 'gender equality standards.'

This, the least onerous recommendation, has been implemented, thereby allowing the government to proclaim it is implementing this recommendation. But, again, it's only in part. I don't understand why it's never quite the whole way when it comes to implementing the recommendations.

The bill implements recommendation 5—to support the Respect@Work implementation to prevent and address workplace sex-based harassment and discrimination—but deals with this recommendation in a way which is different from the review, though the intent, I acknowledge, remains the same. There are some gaps, though, in this legislation.

The bill does not address recommendation 7, which encourages intersectional data collection to reflect the true state of gender equality in the economy. It would paint a more holistic picture to understand how gender interacts with other factors to contribute to compounding the gender pay gap across certain groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women living with disabilities, culturally and linguistically diverse women, young women and non-binary people.

Another gap in the bill is that it does not include partnership data. However, this dataset is more complex to justify gender gaps in, as partners do not receive a salary and take on more financial risk. Their remuneration can often be drawn from the success of their practice and economic trends. The bill also does not address or seek to clarify the superannuation gap between men and women. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, women retire with one-third of the superannuation that men do, and the superannuation gap between men and women in some age groups is as high as 47.8 per cent.

In summary, the government can be congratulated for implementing some of these recommendations, but it is in part. It goes a significant way towards implementing the recommendations of the review, but on a close analysis it is still half-hearted, and there are still so many more aspects of the recommendations that have been left on the table.

Transparency is only part of the solution, of course, when we're talking about the gender pay gap. I welcome the commitments from the government to improve gender pay equity, including increased paid parental leave, improved affordability of child care and increased pay transparency in the Fair Work Act amendments. There is a strong economic case for these changes. For example, increasing the paid parental leave entitlements to 26 weeks will cost the government some $600 million per year, but it will add $900 million per year to GDP, as well as boosting a mother's lifetime earnings by $30,000. Australia has one of the least generous paid parental leave schemes in the world—highly gendered and discriminatory and considering only a woman's income in the calculation of eligibility. However, these improvements to parental leave policy really need to be implemented as soon as possible. We need to start seeing significant changes to workforce structures.

The other key driver is improving childcare affordability and accessibility. The government has pledged some $4.5 billion to make child care more affordable. It will provide much-needed support for parents and help women increase their participation in the workforce. However, the sector has called on the government to address the critical worker shortage. There were already some 7,000 vacancies across the sector in September last year, and with the government's proposed changes that could increase to over 25,000 according to some in the sector. Wages increases are necessary to attract and retain an adequate workforce in this female dominated industry, but of course there needs to be better long-term planning.

Finally—and I think this is a matter of priority for the government—a key issue that must be addressed in this budget in May, as a matter of urgency, is dealing with the single parent support payment. If the government is serious about addressing pay inequality between men and women, it must address the poorest women who are impacted, who are single mothers. The single parent support payment tells single mothers: 'We appreciate and value your role as mothers, raising the future generation, the future of our country, until they turn eight. After that, we will consider you unemployed and we will put you on a JobSeeker payment.' That is unacceptable. It leaves children and women in circumstances of having to choose, often in cases of domestic violence, to stay in dangerous situations. It is policy induced poverty. So many women have come to me and many of my colleagues to talk about how they have had to abandon hopes of education, of studying to improve their job prospects, just because of that pressure of making ends meet once their child has turned eight. So, if the government is fair dinkum and genuine in wanting to talk about pay on gender equality, we must address those who are the most vulnerable in the system, and they are single mothers. So we must, as a matter of urgency, change the legislation to ensure the single parent payment goes from changing when the youngest child reaches the age of eight to changing when the child reaches the age of 16.

Let's get real. There is so much discrepancy here when it comes to how we, the government and our system deal with children. We don't consider them to be responsible enough to vote until they're 18. They can't drink alcohol till they're 18. They can't gamble till they're 18. They start to learn to drive when they are 16. But they can be criminally responsible when they're 10, and we say to parents, 'It's no longer a priority to parent them, and we won't support you in a parenting role for that child, from the age of eight.' So let's get real. Where are our priorities? We need to start genuinely addressing pay inequality, and that starts with very simple measures that the government can prioritise in this budget in May.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to be supporting the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 in the parliament today. It's a good day for the parliament because it's a good day for women's equality. It's a good day for a fairer Australia too.

In May 2022—the last figures I saw—women's average weekly ordinary full-time earnings across all industries and occupations were about $260 less than men's. That's not because women are less educated. In fact, we know that graduate pay already starts the lifetime of unequal pay for women. In fact, Australian women have high levels of educational attainment. The gender pay gap can start, nevertheless, as soon as a woman enters the workforce. In May 2021, half of all young women had a bachelor degree or above, compared with just over 36 per cent of young men. But, when you look at those graduate salaries and the graduate gender pay gap, men reported higher starting salaries than women in 15 of 19 fields of study in 2020. That includes science and maths graduates, for whom the full-time starting salary is $61,500 for women and $65,000 for men. It's not about education. It's not about men overtaking women in workplaces. The inequality starts from day one in the workforce.

We've known that this is a problem for many years, and we've made many efforts to address it. We've been working at this for some time. We've made legislative changes, but never enough to actually reduce the gender pay gap. It has been a stubborn problem in Australian society for many, many years. In fact, Justice Mary Gaudron pointed this out after a 1998 pay equity case. She said, 'We won equal pay once'—she was talking about the 1975 case—'then we got it again, and then we got it again, and now we still don't have it.' That's why I'm so very pleased today to be supporting this legislation—because in 2023 the excuses are over. We're done. We've had it. It's time to fix this problem. We've made legislative changes over the years but with the very slow rate of change that we've seen—because of the laws and the institutions that we've changed—we would be at this for decades more. We need to get in and make the substantial changes that will permanently change the gender pay gap in Australia.

When I had the women's portfolio in the Rudd years we had a look at what was then the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. We made a number of reforms to the agency then. We introduced a number of transparency measures at the time. The review we did of the laws and the agency at that time told us—in what probably came as no surprise to any of us, I suspect—that female dominated industries had been historically undervalued. Well, that wasn't much of a surprise. It told us that women were less likely to be promoted into leadership positions and that women consistently earned less than men at work. We changed the remit of the agency at that time and changed the laws. We introduced new reporting frameworks for organisations, requiring large companies to report their progress against gender equality indicators. We provided tools to help large companies assess their own gender pay gap and see what they could do to better meet their aspirations to reduce gender pay gaps in their own organisations. At the time we did that it was considered world-leading. It was innovative, and the transparency measures were ahead of most other comparable nations—nations like us. But you have to say that what was right for 2012 isn't right for 2023. We need to continually update our laws and institutions, both because we haven't yet achieved gender equality and because we learn, by looking at other nations, that we need to keep pushing and updating what we're doing to get real results.

During the last decade we've seen other countries overtake us on these transparency measures—they're doing better than we are—and the results have seen us, as a nation, tumbling down the global equality rankings between men and women. Under the time of the previous government we fell to 50th in the world for gender equality, and for economic participation for women we fell from the 12th most equal country in the world to the 70th most equal country in the world. It's embarrassing that Australia would be the 70th most equal country in the world for women's economic participation. It's a truly shocking decline. We made changes when we were last in government. The changes that we made had, at their heart, the same thing that is at the heart of the changes that we are debating today, and that is the phenomenal power of transparency to drive greater equality in Australian society.

I think we probably all agree Australians are by their nature a country of people who pride themselves on the fair go. If we see inequality, if we see injustice, we want to call it out and we want to fix it. When you show we have a systemic inequality in Australia driven by institutional discrimination—sexism, in this case—Australians won't stand for it. They want to fix it. When we get companies to publish their gender pay gaps, there are a natural series of questions about why these gender pay gaps exist. Transparency was and always has been a great force for equality.

The key change in this bill is we'll now publish gender pay gaps at an employer level for companies with more than a hundred employees. That is a fantastic change. The information will be published on the WGEA website in a searchable tool that is available to the public. That's great for academics who are studying this, of course; it's also terrific if you're thinking about applying for a job. We've got a race for talent, a competition for talent, in the Australian economy at the moment. If you're thinking about applying for a job, you've two companies you're choosing between—this one or this one—you see this one's got a five per cent gender pay gap and this one's got a 20 per cent gender pay gap, you're choosing between the two of them and you're a woman, I think you're probably going to make the sensible decision about the one with the lower gender pay gap. It's important for shareholders to see what the business they've got a stake in is doing terms of the gender pay gap. This information is valuable for potential employees and for people who've got an interest in the business.

It's also so important to drive a change in business behaviour. If you are answering questions at shareholder meetings about why you have a bigger gender pay gap than the average for the industry or a big gender pay gap overall, answering your shareholders' questions about that pretty quickly focuses management on how to fix what is a systemic problem. And why we are fixing it? Is it just because it's the fair thing to do? That'd be lovely. It is the fair thing to do. But it's not just because it's the fair thing to do. The reason we have to fix this in the interests of business is that we know companies that have smaller gender pay gaps, that have higher levels of women in management positions, actually do better in business. It's because they've got different life experiences, different views, different perspectives sitting around the table when decisions are being made.

It's been long-term Labor policy to work on reducing the gender pay gap. We've taken policies around reducing the gender pay gap to each election, and I am really so very pleased to say this bill comes as part of a history of work and activism in this area by a succession of Labor governments. Closing the gender pay gap is core business for the Australian Labor Party, because it's about fairness. It was Gough Whitlam who backed that 1975 equal pay test case. It was Susan Ryan who passed the Sex Discrimination Act. It was Bob Hawke and Susan Ryan who established the first Affirmative Action Agency. We've seen each Labor government make its contribution towards greater equality for women in the workplace.

These changes are significant. They'll make a difference. I do particularly want to acknowledge the excellent work of the minister for industrial relations and the Minister for Women in prosecuting these changes and bringing forward this important legislation. I also think they, the two ministers, would be the first to acknowledge that this comes from a great deal of work, thought and activism from women and men in the great Australian trade union movement, including through pay cases for women in low-paid industries. It comes from the work of many, many branch members in branches right across Australia and them taking forward motions for closing the gender pay gap to our national conferences. Institutions and organisations like EMILY's List have campaigned so hard to make sure that we have solid policies on gender equality in the Labor Party. This is a real tribute to the hard work of those activists in the union movement and in the Labor Party over many years, indeed. It is also about the work of academics and others who have collected this information and built the evidence base for making these changes. They've examined what's worked around the world and they've asked, 'Why can't we have what's worked overseas work here in Australia?'

I also want to mention previous ministers who have worked in these areas. When Brendan O'Connor had this portfolio, Peta Murphy worked with him. They did an enormous amount of work on issues around the gender pay gap. I pay tribute to their work. For Lauren Power, who works in the Prime Minister 's office, this has been the work of many years. I want to make sure that her efforts are acknowledged here.

We will never have equality in society until we have equality at work, and we will never have equality at work until we have a more equal distribution of unpaid work as well as paid work. The gender pay gap shapes every aspect of people's lives—their ability to buy a home, to raise a family, to pursue their dreams, to save for a comfortable retirement, to leave a violent relationship and to have choice in their lives. That's why we are restoring Australian leadership on gender equality. We are supporting pay increases for low-paid workers, who we know are mostly women. We are making child care cheaper. We are expanding access to paid parental leave. We have our next national plan on violence against women and their children. We are passing legislation in response to Respect@Work. We are implementing gender responsive budgeting. We have passed our policy for 10 days paid domestic violence leave. We are ending pay secrecy clauses, which are so pernicious. We know that the industries with the greatest reliance on pay secrecy clauses—surprise, surprise!—have the greatest rates of gender pay inequality. Now there's this new addition: greater transparency, demanding that Australian companies disclose their gender pay gaps so we can close those gender pay gaps. I am proud to be part of a party that prioritises women's equality at work, and I'm proud to support this bill.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this important bill today, the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, as a proud member of the first ever majority women Australian government.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I forgot to mention that in my speech—that's pretty good!

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes! The Albanese government has a record number of women in cabinet and the ministry. I want to thank my ACT colleague and friend the Minister for Women, Senator Katy Gallagher, for her work in bringing this bill before the parliament.

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a Canberra women's forum with Senator Gallagher and ACT Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry in the lead-up to International Women's Day. It was an inspiring evening, with many great questions and discussions about issues affecting women across Australia. We still have a long way to go to progress gender equality in this country. Luckily, under Senator Gallagher, Labor has put gender equality at the heart of policymaking in this government, a Labor government that doesn't just make announcements but follows through on its promises. It is a government that has worked hard to deliver for women since the election 10 months ago. It's a government investing over $7 billion to drive gender equality in our first budget. It's a government that has a national strategy to achieve gender equality. It's a government which will make gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act. It is delivering 10 days paid domestic violence leave, enhancing the Paid Parental Leave scheme and delivering cheaper child care for 1.2 million Australian families. And this is a government that has introduced legislation for the Housing Australia Future Fund, which includes a focus on older women and women escaping domestic violence. That bill is currently before this parliament, and I think it's disappointing that anyone in this parliament would want to vote against, or consider voting against, the delivery of affordable housing for those most in need of it at the moment.

So we're making a lot of progress, but of course there's still more to do. That's why we've brought in the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, which fulfils a key election commitment by this government to close the gender pay gap at work. Unfortunately, improvement in the gender pay gap has been stalling. In fact, in the previous financial year, under the last government, the gap actually increased by 0.3 per cent. In 2023 Australia's national gender pay gap sits at 13.3 per cent. In practical terms, as of May 2022, the average weekly full-time earnings of a woman in Australia across all industries and occupations was lower than the equivalent for men by $253.50 per week. That's not good enough: women should not be paid less than men and we must close this gap. The impact of this means that the average woman will pay a higher percentage of her earnings on bills than men, including essentials such as groceries, power bills and rent. This follows women into retirement, where they will have an average 23.4 per cent less super when they come to retirement age than men do.

Not only is this morally unacceptable but it is a constraint on the Australian economy. The gender pay gap alone represents a cost of $51.8 billion a year. The gap is present in all industries, from the top end of town to the suburbs. In 2022 only 14 women achieved executive levels in the top 200 companies in this country. I was pleased today to see that the 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey, which is conducted every four years, showed some improvements, with attitudes rejecting gender inequality increasing by five per cent. But it was disappointing to see the survey report that almost one in 10 of those surveyed still believe that men make more capable bosses than women in the workplace, and that one in 10 agree with the statement that men make better political leaders than women. This has to change.

We know that the gender pay gap is especially prevalent in highly feminised industries, which can be attributed to outdated and discriminatory assumptions about the value of the work that we do. But the pandemic brought home to us just how important the care industries really are. The heroes of the pandemic were those such as early childhood educators, nurses, aged-care workers, cleaners and disability support workers, who look after our young, ageing, and Australians living with disability. I recently had the pleasure of meeting a number of these invaluable workers when I visited BaptistCare Carey Gardens aged-care home in Red Hill with our aged-care minister, Annika Wells. I also recently visited Goodstart Early Learning in Garran, and met some incredible and professional workers at both of those. I would like to thank the staff at both of these centres for their dedication, for sharing with me the challenges they face and their positive plans for the future. The highlight was meeting the happy residents and the children, which was a testament to the hard work of the staff in both these important sectors. I'm proud to be part of a government that's working to fix aged care, which supported a pay rise for aged-care workers and is increasing access to early childhood education.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention a fantastic organisation in my electorate which I'm very honoured to be the patron of: WIC, or Women in ICT—information and communication technology. WIC is dedicated to championing women in tech through opportunities for networking, inspiring women to take their careers to the next level in the industry and supporting them to do so—increasing participation by women in this male-dominated industry. I want to acknowledge the current president, Tara Searle; vice president, Josephine Calabria; and the whole committee for the incredible work that they do, along with all the people who participate in WIC events. Whenever I've had the pleasure to go to their events, I'm really struck by the genuine warmth and the great spirit there from people who want to support women in this industry. Men come along as well, because that's a really important part of this.

WIC supports women in tech right from the beginning, with girls studying STEM in high school, helping to provide them with an opportunity to talk about some of the things that they are facing and whether they are considering furthering their education in this area, including providing scholarships for women who go to uni to study in these areas. It's really important and so inspiring, in particular, to see these young women studying in areas that didn't even exist when I was in high school. By taking this on, they have such a supportive, inclusive, wonderful group of women in this area, and I really commend their work and wish them all the best in continuing. Again, I am so honoured to be their patron and hope to support them in every way that I can.

This bill, like so much of the legislation the Albanese Labor government has passed to make Australia a better and fairer place, is being guided by evidence. We are a science and evidence based government, unlike the previous government. These reforms resulted from close consultation with stakeholders across Australia, including the business and not-for-profit sectors, employee organisations, higher education providers, users of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency data, Australian government and territory governments and, of course, WGEA itself.

This bill also responds to a 2021 review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. The review made 10 recommendations to help accelerate progress towards workplace gender equality in Australia. Recommendation 2 of the review was to improve pay gap transparency, and this bill introduces new provisions allowing for WGEA to publish gender pay gaps of relevant employers for each reporting period. This will promote accountability and encourage accelerated action and change within organisations towards closing the gender pay gap. Recommendation 3.2(b) went to improving accountability for gender equality within organisations. For the first time, WGEA will report gender pay gaps at employer level, not just industry level. This will help encourage companies to priorities gender equality and work to close the gender pay gap. It will accelerate progress towards gender equality.

This is what happened when the UK introduced similar legislation in 2017. This change draws on data that employers already provide to WGEA and will give us more information about gender pay gaps and put employees on notice to take action. To strengthen the focus on gender equality, the bill will amend the act to rename current minimum standards as 'gender equality standards' to reflect the increased ambitions of these measures to strengthen gender equality, improving outcomes for both women and men in the workplace. To support the implementation of the Respect@Work report, this bill also amends the act to include sexual harassment, harassment on the ground of sex or discrimination as gender equality indicators in the act. These reforms will drive employer action, transparency and accountability and will help speed up progress towards gender equality in the workplace while at the same time streamlining reporting for employers.

Estimates indicate that, at the current rate of progress, it could take as long as 24 years to close the gender pay gap. Women have waited long enough. Improving workplace gender equality is critical. Australian women deserve fair and safe working conditions and they deserve equal opportunity and equal renumeration. This bill is getting on with the job of closing the gender pay gap for women in Australia. Labor has also committed to reviewing these legislative amendments five years after they have passed. This will allow critical evaluation of how effective these measures have been in achieving the objective of accelerating progress towards gender equality in Australian workplaces.

It's my firm belief that, to truly achieve gender equality in the workplace, we do as the member for Sydney and the Minister for the Environment and Water just said: we do need to ensure that unpaid work is also equitably shared between genders. I think that, to achieve gender equity in the workplace, we really need to see a normalising of taking time out of the workplace to be part-time for both men and women in respect of taking care of children, because that is really where the rubber hits the road in terms of the disparities between men and women in the workplace. I'm really proud of the work that we have done on paid parental leave under the Minister for Social Services and her leadership on that. We are extending the Paid Parental Leave Scheme and making it more equally shared between both partners. Seeing this normalisation not only is important for people accessing that scheme but also sends a broader message to employers about providing this leave for mothers, fathers and partners after the birth of a child. We know that when parents are able to take more time at that really special time for families, particularly when fathers are able to take that time, it means they will take more time and have more involvement as their children grow up. I think that is critically important, because we still live in a society where the responsibility of this is taken on predominantly by women, but this means that men miss out. In the days where it was just seen that the dad would work and the mum would be with the kids, the dads missed out on a really special time in their children's lives. It's good to see some movement in this area.

Government policy is a really important part of supporting people and families to make the choices that suit them the best and sending that message to employers. I remember that when I was working at Treasury some years ago we undertook a process of progressing women. In the time that that happened, we saw some real results around that. One of the things I remember having the most impact was some of the men—particularly senior men—going part-time. This was groundbreaking at the time, the idea that a senior person—let alone a man—could be part-time. To see the impact that this had for others and to see that people could do this was a really important step. Government policy of normalising that time out of the workforce to balance family and work is so important. I'm so proud of the work that we've done there, and I commend the minister on that as well.

It's a great honour to follow the Minister for the Environment and Water, who talked about being a majority-women government for the first time. It is wonderful to work with so many great women in this Labor caucus, and I'm very thankful for that opportunity. I particularly acknowledge the minister for coming to my Canberra Environment Forum last night, which meant so much to my constituents. It was a fantastic discussion.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm proud to rise in this chamber to speak on another signature Albanese Labor government election promise that this bill delivers. The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 will implement the vast majority of the recommendations that stemmed from the 2021 review of the act. The bill will empower the Workplace Gender Equality Agency—the WGEA—with the ability to publish gender pay gaps of the relevant employers at each reporting period. This alone is a significant change, as it means that instead of data being published on the gender pay gap by industry it will now be specific pay gaps published per company. This change not only is necessary to fulfil our election promise to the Australian people but also critically serves to promote accountability in companies and encourage their speedy efforts to address any pay gap they may have.

The first time we will see this new gender pay gap data will be in early 2024, based on the current reporting period of 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. On top of providing this data per employer, companies will have the option of providing a statement to give further context as to why they have a gender pay gap and what actions they are taking to rectify this. This statement would also be public and published in an easy-to-find format alongside their gender pay gap data on WGEA's website. This change also benefits employees. They will now be empowered with the ability to search their company's gender pay gap at any time and see what the company is doing about it. If you're a prospective employee at a company, you can do some additional research before choosing to work for them or not.

We know this change is an important step in tackling Australia's gender pay gap. As of 2022, this gap stood at a shocking 14.1 per cent. Practically speaking, this means that, as of May 2022, the average weekly full-time earnings of a woman in this country, taking into account all industries and occupations, was lower than the male equivalent by as much as $263.90 per week. We also know that women, on average, have 23.4 per cent less superannuation when they reach retirement age compared to men. Women are generally overrepresented in industries with lower wages and underrepresented in leadership positions. Women hold just 18 per cent of chair positions and 34 per cent of board member positions. Whilst gender discrimination, of course, does not just affect women, these statistics are quite stark.

This gender pay gap alone costs the Australian economy $51.8 billion a year. This pay gap helps no-one, and it is in all our interests, workers and businesses alike, to fix it. Will this bill fix all of that overnight? Of course not. However, it is a very significant step in shining a light on the gender pay gap that may exist from company to company, and this information being public will have positive flow-on effects to address it. No employer wants to be at the bottom of this soon-to-be public ladder. We know this because similar reforms were initiated in the United Kingdom back in 2017. Since then, there has been a marked improvement across the board in the gender pay gap, particularly in companies towards the end of the spectrum.

Further accountability and transparency changes in this bill include the WGEA requiring employers to provide their executive summary report and industry benchmark report to all members of their governing body. This ensures that, after receiving the report from the WGEA, everyone with a leadership role in a company is informed on progress they are making in addressing the gender pay gap or in starting that progress if it isn't already happening.

Importantly, the bill also amends the act to rename the existing 'minimum standards' wording to 'gender equality standards', which reflects this bill's ambitious goal to drastically improve gender equality and economic outcomes for both men and women in the workplace. Other administrative changes include renaming the WGEA chair's role from 'director' to 'chief executive officer'. This implements recommendation 9.2 of the review, aligns the language of the act with the WGEA and avoids confusion with the company director's role. Further amendments to the act include adding 'sexual harassment', 'harassment on the ground of sex' and 'discrimination' as gender equality indicators in the act. These amendments address recommendation 5.1 of the review and support the implementation of the Respect@Work report.

One of the best things about this bill is that it will not result in increased paperwork or red tape for businesses. We are simply drawing on the data that has already been provided and making it more accessible and transparent for all. In fact, the remade instruments that will action many of these changes make it easier for employers to report on their data. This will be actioned through research and consultation on the collection of additional diversity data about those with cultural and linguistic diversity, our First Nations Australians and those with a disability.

The development of these gender equality targets requires close consultation with businesses and other important stakeholders. I know that the Minister for Women, Senator Katy Gallagher, is working very hard to develop a further legislative package that will include measures to give effect to outstanding legislative recommendations, such as requiring employers to achieve specific gender equality targets. This will be introduced at a later date.

I am also pleased to see this bill before us. I know its implementation will do wonders to not only help businesses address their gender pay gaps and learn from each other but also help employees and prospective employees know what the current gender pay gap might be. I've always believed that shining a light on an issue always has positive effects. While this bill in itself does not solve the entire gender pay gap issue, it will go a long way in helping address it. I am proud of yet another Labor bill that honours an election commitment we made to the Australian people in last year's election. This shows yet again that Labor are getting things done, and we are not wasting a moment in seeking to improve the conditions of all Australians.

I worked as a union organiser for many, many years, and I represented people who worked in retail, fast food and warehousing. I am so proud that the Albanese Labor government is standing up for all the women across this country. I strongly commend this bill to the House, and I hope to see everyone in this place voting in favour of such commonsense reforms. I thank the House.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Women's economic development is core business to the Albanese government—and why wouldn't it be? For the first time in Commonwealth history we have record representation of women in the government, at 52 per cent. We are highly invested in the needs of women throughout this country. I started with women's economic development because central to progress for women is them actually reclaiming the economic narrative in this country, which for too long has been dominated by male voices and men—in boardrooms, in chairs, all over this country. Women, we know, hold up half the sky. The problem is that sky is getting heavier and heavier to hold up. We know that the Global gender gap report 2022 ranked Australia 43rd out of 146 countries. To put that into context, New Zealand was number four. And it would only take 130 years to close that gender pay gap—130 years; it's a few lifetimes.

But it's not all bad news because, in Australia, WGEA put out their report, and it shows that it would only take 26 years to close the gender pay gap in Australia—26 years. The problem is that, with so many of the women on our side in government, we're pretty impatient, and we're not going to wait 26 years. We want to speed this whole process along, and this is why we are internally promoting structural reforms on multiple fronts: paid parental leave; child care; IR reform, to make workplaces safer and more fair for women; and promoting flexible workplaces.

But that's not all. We need to shine a light on this dark, dirty secret in Australian workplaces that, when a man and a woman go for the same job, the chances are that the man is going to get paid a little bit more than the woman. The problem with this scenario is that the 14 per cent gender pay gap that we currently have in Australia has translated to about $263 per week on average. The problem with an average is that there's always more and there's always less. This has an outsized impact on a woman's life. If you start off with lower pay, it translates to fewer assets, less super and, finally, more vulnerability later in life. It's not a secret that women over the age of 55 are now the fastest-growing group of people ending up marooned and homeless, and that's simply because they do not have that financial buffer that men do, especially when they encounter the headwinds—or the storms, actually—of life: job loss, bereavement, relationship breakdown. These are the reasons why we are so invested in addressing this vexed problem on multiple fronts. And we don't pretend that it's going to close in the next few years, but we're certainly not prepared to wait 26 years. That's outrageous. As far as this legislation goes, what we are planning on doing is—

Debate interrupted.