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

With so many challenges, who can afford to leave female firepower on the table? In one year of the Albanese government, records are being smashed. Women's employment is at a 50-year record high. Over 3.8 million women are in full-time work—the highest number in recorded history. Women are flocking to full-time jobs. Why? Confidence—confidence that the Albanese government, flush with 53 per cent women, is backing them in. We are implementing the Respect@Work recommendations; making gender pay equity an explicit consideration of the Fair Work Commission; paying super on payday; and reforming the bargaining system so women can negotiate as a bloc. We've introduced 10 days of paid domestic violence leave. We've stamped out pay secrecy.

We are dialling down the casualisation that has robbed women of financial security. Financial security provides options. It's the difference between staying or leaving, building up or just getting by.

With cheaper childcare and the biggest boost to paid parental leave on 1 July, we want to see those gendered stereotypes that box in women as homemakers and men as breadwinners relegated to history. The Albanese government is lining the streets, clearing the barriers and cheering Australia's women on.