Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The recently released Globalgender gap report from the World Economic Forum shows that, since the Albanese Labor government took office, Australia's world gender equity ranking has jumped 17 places from 43rd to 26th, the largest increase since the index began in 2006. This is a huge achievement. It means that Australia is starting to properly value and invest in better outcomes for women and girls. This historic 17-place jump is in part driven by Labor's commitment to equal gender representation in politics. We are now the first Australian Commonwealth government in history to be majority women—53 per cent. The number of women in our cabinet has increased to 10 out of 23—43 per cent. This is the largest number of women we've ever had in an Australian federal cabinet. This kind of representation was thought to be completely outside the realm of possibility when I was young. When I was born, there was one female MP in the House of Representatives and there were four female senators. Young women and girls of today's Australia have a very different example before them.

We know that gender equality has been demonstrated to lead to better decision-making. We see the evidence in boardrooms and management. ASX listed companies have better financial outcomes when they are led by a diverse board with at least two women. We had a decade of stalled progress under the former coalition government, which has allowed the gender status quo to continue for far too long. As the Minister for Women, Senator Gallagher, has said, on average, women working full time can expect to earn 14.1 per cent less per week in their pay packets than men, and we are facing poorer economic outcomes as a result of this inequity. Every year, $51.8 billion is lost because the underpayment of women continues. The current projections show it will take another 26 years to close the gender pay gap. This is unacceptable, and the Albanese government will not sit back and allow this sorry situation to continue.

At the last election, Labor promised to push forward Australia's progress and make us a world leader on gender equality, and some of the changes we've implemented are making a tangible difference. We are extending and modernising paid parental leave. Our new model encourages fathers to also take parental leave, which is a benefit to the child and also to the whole family. It also allows the mother to return to work earlier if she so chooses. We are expanding the single parenting payment, legislating Australia's first paid domestic violence leave so survivors don't have to choose between safety and retaining their job, and increasing transparency on gender pay gap reporting. I have my own personal expense with the gender pay gap, where in a team of three equivalent executives I discovered I was being paid $8,000 less than one and $15,000 less than the other male counterpart. It was only once I discovered this and pointed it out that I could make the case, and my pay was adjusted appropriately. I shouldn't have to do that work.

We are investing in consent based, respectful relationships and protected behaviour programs in primary and secondary schools because, if we want to end sexual assault, we need a cultural change. There is funding for a national consent survey, and we are abolishing the ParentsNext program on 1 July 2024. This is just the start.

A large part of our plan to push for better outcomes for women and girls is the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality. We've made significant strides in developing this strategy, which will guide holistic, community led action. It will be an important mechanism for recognising, elevating and prioritising actions that will achieve gender equality. The strategy will work towards improving all aspects of life for women, from ensuring their physical safety both at home and at work to challenging stereotypes and attitudes that restrict their choices, as well as addressing the undervaluing of women's labour and leadership. Developing this strategy has involved extensive consultation with a diverse range of women and girls. We understand that diversity of experience and perspective is a vital part of this plan. Recognising the impact that intersecting identities have on the experience of women will allow us to tackle gender inequality in a nuanced and effective way.

The lived experience of gender inequality is something that was really brought home to me during my time at Catherine House. This women's homelessness service and the women experiencing that homelessness are a living example of the perfect storm of gender inequality, the cumulative effect of gender inequality throughout their entire lives. When you discover that women are more likely to be living in poverty in older age and that women 55 and older make up a huge cohort of people experiencing homelessness, this is the reason why. These were often the women who had few options for work when they left school. They were often in gendered roles, none of which were well paid or, in those days, even paid the same as their male equivalents, were there any. They often had to leave work when they got married or pregnant, and, even for those not in that age group, women are often in gendered roles: the caring professions, which are somehow underpaid despite the importance of the work. They are often a casualised workforce with part-time roles and long gaps in their career paths due to caring for children, husbands, partners and parents. And, even if they do go back to work after children, again they're often lower paid, they've lost years of career progression and are on part-time work.

All of this means that they don't have much of a financial safety net: little super and few savings. Then they get older and something happens: a relationship breakdown—sometimes with DV, but it can be something else; a cancer diagnosis, an injury or a job loss; trauma, such as sexual assault; or just getting to retirement age and finding they have nothing to fall back on. They run out of options and they end up sleeping in their car or on a friend's couch. That's how easy it is to become homeless as a woman, and that's how gender inequality directly impacts on a woman's life: it's cumulative through their entire life. Whether a woman ends up in this cohort or not, gender inequality affects all women. I shared the story of how it affected me—and I consider myself to have had a very lucky life.

So it's important that, as a government, we address gender inequality. The understanding that this government has of the experiences of women is like that of no other government to date. Why? What makes this government so different to previous iterations? It's the fact that women's voices are represented at an unprecedented rate. Women are at the table, being heard. The amazing women in our cabinet and our caucus room are sharing their experiences, hardships and triumphs in a room that is prepared and eager to listen to their unique perspectives. They're hearing understanding the experience of other women in our electorates and they're bringing those into the parliament, into the caucus room, into committees and into policy discussions. That changes outcomes, and that's what we've seen. The World Economic Forum has recognised that things are changing here in Australia, and that's why our gender equality ranking has jumped from 43rd to 26th: 17 points. We still have a long way to go. I note that our neighbour New Zealand is at No. 4, but we're heading in the right direction.

I am very proud of the achievements of the Albanese government to date, and I commit to keep pushing forward so that Australia becomes the most gender-equal country in the world. At the last election gender equality and the treatment of women by the former government was one of the major issues that I heard about from women in my electorate. It was certainly something that influenced my decision to run, and my decision to be here to make a difference. To see this enormous jump in the gender-equality rating so soon after we came to government is incredibly rewarding. I'd like to thank all of my electorate for the opportunity to be part of this.

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

H () (): I wouldn't be getting too excited about the figures. The government is claiming that it has been all their work which has improved our standing. But if we look deeper into the figures globally, in 2013 Australia was ranked No. 1 when it came to educational attainment. We're now No. 78.

Would you like to claim No. 78 as well? We're 89th when it comes to health and we're also 38th when it comes to economic participation. And, yes, we are 26th out of 146 countries.

I have a particular interest in this issue. In 2014 I ran a big women-in-leadership event on the sidelines of the G20, and I would like to acknowledge a couple of the men who supported that and championed it: former senator Robert Hill, Kevin McCann and a former senator who has, sadly, passed away, Russell Trood. They really got behind this issue, because it's not just a women's issue; it's an economic issue. There was a goal set at the time by the G20, that by 2025 the reduction in the gender gap would be 25 per cent globally. Australia does play its part in that, and the improvements that we're seeing overall are encouraging, but there's absolutely more work to be done.

The way that we do that is across multiple areas. Of course there are women in politics and having clearer pathways for women—having more women in the talent pool; women in business and how to keep women engaged with their careers; and investing in women, which is a particular issue globally. When we look at the figures globally—and we can't take Australia out of that context, because this is a global target to reduce the gender gap—we've had setbacks and we've actually gone backwards. We should be concerned about that and whether we're going to pick up pace again to reach this 25 per cent target.

Of course, that is due to the COVID pandemic and the impact it had on women and girls in education and the workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises worldwide. Today some parts of the world are seeing partial recoveries while others are experiencing deteriorations as a new crisis unfolds. Global gender gaps in health and education have narrowed over the past year, yet progress on political empowerment is effectively at a standstill and women's economic participation has regressed rather than recovered. We can't increase global GDP, which is actually the aim of decreasing the gender gap, if we don't have women's economic participation.

COVID-19 placed an immense occupational, social and economic hardship on all of society, in particular on women and children. We know that in most households, when care is needed, it is overwhelmingly a woman who sacrifices employment or occupational advancement. This was evidenced in the peak years of the COVID pandemic, particularly during the lockdowns. COVID also affected hospitality, and many women working casual or part-time roles went without work or pay throughout that period until the former coalition government stepped in to assist those workers and families to ensure stability. We also saw the female dominated professions of caring, nursing and education facing the brunt of the pandemic. Maybe that's why we've seen such a decline in the rates around education. I urge the government to really look seriously at those, both in the area of education and in the area of health, and why we have gone from No. 1 down to 27 and are now 89th in the world when it comes to health.

I'd like to also acknowledge our nurses, who worked night and day to save lives during that incredibly difficult period. I know the New South Wales government offered healthcare workers accommodation so they didn't have to go home and risk spreading the virus to their families. And, of course, I want to thank our carers for the amazing work that they did during that period. Without their efforts, many more lives in aged-care facilities or disability services and housing may have been lost. Our teachers, within an instant, had to change the delivery model of work for students, and I understand the additional stress this put on our educators. I thank them for their stewardship of innovation during those periods so that, from early learning all the way through to university, kids were still being engaged in their education. I know that firsthand, with three children.

I mention those because that period of time during the pandemic had a real impact on the results that we are seeing today. I think the world needs to get back to some sense of normality for us to relook at the figures and also Australia's place in those figures before we get too carried away about doing such an amazing job. So I urge the government to be a bit careful in their self-congratulatory language about our current ranking in the world.

When we're thinking about women and their ability to work and support, we can't step back and not talk about the impact of this Labor government's cuts to the psychology sessions from 20 to 10. From the data, we know that it particularly impacts young women and girls who use the Better Access sessions provided by the former coalition government. In the midst of the pandemic, the coalition knew Australians were struggling and that mental health issues were arising from lockdowns and COVID. Now we're seeing that the cost-of-living crisis is causing distress in the community as well as the compounding impact of that period for those with long- to medium-term mental health conditions.

Women face a higher rate of homelessness as they age, and we know that workforce participation and economic opportunity can impact this. When I get an opportunity, I often give a shout-out to a program that I was involved in establishing when I worked in community and social housing. It's called the WISH program, Women In Social Housing. It was established for women who had been in the cycle of intergenerational welfare, had been through domestic violence and had never been able to get out of social housing. They were partnered with mentors in the community and provided wraparound support and training to get them into the workforce. I think that is such a wonderful program to give women independence—most of all, economic independence. These programs should have support in our communities, and these are local programs that make a difference. If women can have that economic independence, they can continue to strive, live out their dreams and be great role models for their children. That's some of the feedback that we were getting from women participating in that program, because it was about changing lives.

Again I want to reflect on the figures; they're not great, worldwide. We're not reaching that 25 per cent target. Australia does have its role to play in that. Please don't get carried away patting yourselves on the back that you're doing an amazing job, because there is a lot of work to do. Please focus on education, please focus on health and please keep the work going that the coalition government started in our term of government

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

It is very typical of those opposite to be only able to look backwards. This really was a shameful slip in the rankings over the last decade that we're recovering from now. It is, I think, quite telling that there's only one speaker from the opposite side that signed themselves up today to speak on this significant issue of Australia's improvement in the World Economic Forum Global gender gap report rankings. So you'll forgive me if I doubt the sincerity of those opposite when it comes to gender equality. Of course, the record of the last decade speaks for itself in terms of that shameful slip backwards that our nation unfortunately experienced in its standing on gender equality.

But I've got really good news, and that is that Australia has improved its standing on gender equality. The World Economic Forum Global gender gap report rankings now list Australia as 26 out of 146 countries—an improvement from where we were previously, at 43 in the world. This improvement is a good achievement and is one that is only possible because of the steps taken by the Albanese Labor government to promote gender equality. Our commitment to fostering greater workforce participation, through making early childhood education and care more affordable and accessible, our work in ensuring feminised work is not worse-paid work and the implementation of paid family and domestic violence leave are all part of the active efforts undertaken by this side of the House to ensure that we close the gender pay gap.

In addition, we have started the implementation of all the recommendations of the Respect@Work report so that all women are safe at work. The report and the recommendations were the product of so many conversations with women right across Australia who were working in horticulture, hospitality, factories, offices, education and a range of different sectors. I'm so pleased that we've taken action to make sure that those women are going to be safer at work. We do have some way to go, and this side of the House acknowledges that. Current projections mean that it will take about 131 years to close the gender gap globally.

Of course, the gender gap impacts women differently. Things are, still, in our own country, too unequal for women from low socioeconomic backgrounds, for First Nations women and for women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. We must consider the intersectionality of experience when implementing policies to make sure that these can improve situations for all women. Our National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children does take intersectionality and women's voices seriously, with victim-survivors at the heart of the ambitious plan to eliminate gendered violence within a generation. This is a plan that all states and territories have signed up to.

In terms of the work we're doing in our region, we are placing gender equality at the heart of our aid program. We know that this significant commitment to lift social and economic participation in the Pacific region is a really important thing for our nation to do, and I'm really proud that we're making that commitment. Labor governments have a good history of taking action on gender equality, with the first female minister—the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women—being a Labor woman: Susan Ryan. She was a remarkable trailblazer who introduced the Sex Discrimination Act to the parliament and the nation. This was preceded by a private senators bill that she introduced—a brave act by a courageous, tenacious woman whose legacy we all benefit from today and, I believe, are obliged to build on.

We still need to do more to improve economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment—all key measures of how well we are doing in the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report rankings. The difference between our side of the House and the other side is that, when we acknowledge all the work that needs to be done, we don't shy away from our responsibilities; we make the active commitment to do more, to do better and to close that gender gap.

Women make up more than half of our government. We should feel great pride that our nation has played host to, arguably, the most successful women's sporting event the world has ever seen: the FIFA Women's World Cup. The Matildas are doing really well and being celebrated by people from all walks of life. But we need to do more to change cultures, to change behaviours and to set new and better standards. I would think that is something everyone in this place should be very aware of.

These achievements that we reflect on having made over the past year have not happened by accident. They've happened because there has been determination to make change, to make our nation more equal, to make the region more equal and to make the world more equal. This work is the responsibility of us all, and do I urge those on the other side of the House to join us in taking active steps to close the gender gap. Our policies in the areas of education, industry, health, finance and housing all take into consideration the gendered dimension of opportunity and aspiration, as well as entrenched and systemic challenges and structural inequalities that need to be addressed.

Our government's holistic approach to gender equality is one that will give us a much greater chance of success in continuing to close the gender gap that persists. Given that there are so many women representatives on our side of the House, that should come as no surprise. I'm very grateful to all those who worked so hard over so many decades in this place to develop policies and implement laws to make it possible for me to be here, but I know that there are many other women in this country who need more to be done to ensure that they have the opportunities that they should and that they deserve. I will use every chance I get here to do what I can to open doors to those women who have been locked out.

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

What a difference a year makes. Australia has just witnessed its biggest jump—a leap, in fact—in the World Economic Forum's rankings for gender equality. Australia has gone from a middling 43rd out of 146 countries—embarrassing for one of the wealthiest countries in the OECD—to now being 26th in the world. This has been driven by several indices but principally by political empowerment.

The gender equality ranking is made up of various indicators. These are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival—which is very good in Australia, where, as we know, women have a life expectancy of around 84 years—and political empowerment and representation, which is where we lag behind. Last year, we were 50th out of 146 countries. This year we are 29th. We have raised our country's entire profile by 17 places. What does political representation actually mean? It means a government that is now female dominant. We have, for the first time in Commonwealth history, 53 per cent representation of women. As my colleague the member for Reid, who is sitting next to me, said, the House of Representatives is finally living up to its name. It was long overdue, but it has happened.

This didn't happen, however, by accident. This happened due to intentional policies that were initially flagged by the Labor Party—indeed, under Keating—around 30 years ago, and a decision was made, due to the abysmal representation of women back then, that we needed quotas. Quotas were debated; they were hotly contested. But, in the end, we landed it and we decided to go with quotas. Our aim was a modest 50 per cent. That's all we aimed for—50 per cent. We were not ambitious. We were not asking too much. We said, 'Let's set a target of 50 per cent—even representation,' not really expecting us to get there. And what has happened in 2023? We have sailed past parity and we are sitting at 53 per cent. But, again, we don't aim for too much.

It turns out our cabinet has the highest representation of women in Commonwealth history as well: 10 out of 23 cabinet members are women, sitting at 43 per cent. 'Why is that important?' you may ask. 'Why does it matter? Is this not some kind of leftie woke agenda? Why can't we just forget about women?' Well, apart from the small fact that women make up 51 per cent of our population, they also happen to live longer than men, so, as you get older, it's going to be skewed towards women; there's a bulge in that sense. Having women at the table improves the quality of the decision-making, and, in a peak decision-making body like this place, that matters, because the decisions that are made, or the decisions that are not made, have repercussions across millions and millions of people, from girls to adolescents to women.

So I am proud to say that we are a government that is hardwired to focus on women's economic attainment as well as representation, and there is a range of interventions that we have introduced. There is $4.7 billion in child care—the largest on-budget spend in our October budget. Now why did we do that? Why does child care matter? It doesn't really matter, does it? Isn't it just middle-class welfare? Isn't that all we hear from those opposite? Child care is infrastructure. We regard it as critical social infrastructure—and economic infrastructure, I might add. Why? Because it brings a triple dividend: to the mother, to the baby and to our economy. Leaving the talent of women on the table is wasting that talent, and, in this environment, when businesses are crying out for workers, no-one, no government, would be sensible in ignoring that cohort of 51 per cent. That is why we pumped $4.7 billion into child care.

It is also why we've realised that this sector is in need of reform. We have tasked the Productivity Commission with looking further into how we can make it more efficient and more equitable, so that everyone benefits from it—including those who live regional communities, where there may not be that many childcare centres.

In addition to this, we have invested in paid parental leave—a proud Labor government legacy, introduced by Julia Gillard in 2011—and we have expanded it by an additional two weeks, in order to then bring it up to six months by 2026. Why, again, does this matter? What does it matter having paid parental leave? Well, paid parental leave matters because those gendered norms that box in men as breadwinners and women as homemakers start in the early days when baby comes home, and they entrench and they persist. What it means for mothers is that mothers do not go back to full-time work, and so you end up with a divergence in pay and economic inequity, which persists for that mother's entire working life.

That brings me to the next point: our gender pay gap. Our gender pay gap has stubbornly sat at 14.1 per cent. This is largely driven by the care economy, which is a feminised industry. It includes nurses, teachers, social workers, childcare workers and aged-care workers. Much of our workplace relations reforms is focused on levelling that field and boosting the pay of these female dominated industries. You may think, again, that this is some sort of leftie agenda. It's about the economy. To quote—who was it? Was it Clinton or Reagan? I forget. It is about the economy, stupid. We have to get on with it. We have to level the playing field, because we cannot afford to let women fall behind.

But we're not stopping there. We have also made gender pay equity an object of the Fair Work Commission. We are focusing on modernising our workplaces by zeroing in on sexual harassment. That belongs to another era, the era that the Australian people slammed the door on on 22 May last year. And we have implemented all the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, or else these are well on the way. In addition to this, we are making gender pay parity an object of peak research organisations such as the NHMRC, the National Health and Medical Research Council, a body that funded me once upon a time when I was a young mother undertaking a PhD. This is incredibly important. Of course we should be bringing up some of our most gifted, brightest women and ensuring that they attain research parity with their male counterparts, because goodness knows they've got enough barriers to contend with.

We are also investing in housing—social and affordable housing—for women and key workers like nurses, because these are people we cannot afford to live without. It is a shame—in fact, a disgrace—that a bill, currently in the Senate, that addresses the acuity of the housing crisis is currently being blocked by the Liberals and the Greens, who have teamed up with One Nation. When you are voting with One Nation, you are already on the wrong side of history. It goes down like a bucket of vomit in Higgins, I can assure you.

But we're not stopping there. We have also established the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce, which comprises 13 eminent women who are providing independent advice to the government, and that is ongoing. We've also committed a record $1.7 billion to the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. Why does that matter? It is one of the most potent drivers of homelessness in Australia—women experiencing domestic violence—and men are highly invested in this issue as well.

So we have some way to go, but we have really come a long way in one year, and we're not going to stop there.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

YDON (—) (): What an honour it is to rise to speak on this ministerial statement regarding the World Economic Forum Global gender gap report rankings. It should be no surprise to anyone in this House that I, and also all of the Labor women who stand behind me and who have made such terrific contributions today, would want to speak to this, because this is what Labor women do.

The latest gender pay gap report from the World Economic Forum shows that we have so much to celebrate. It shows that, since the election of an Albanese Labor government just 12 months ago, Australia's world gender equality ranking has jumped a very impressive 17 places. From what was an all-time record low for Australia 12 months ago under the former government, when we were positioned at 43 on those world rankings, we have jumped 17 places, up to 26, the largest increase since the index began in 2006.

In no small part, that jump is due to Labor's steadfast commitment to gender-equal representation in politics. This is not some woke new agenda we've just cottoned onto here; this is a project that has been at the heart of Labor's work for three decades. That is why we stand before you—three women; there are two with me in this chamber now. For the first time in Australia's history since Federation in 1901, the Australian parliament has a government that is a majority of women. It is by no accident that this happens. To those opposite, if you still think that there isn't a role to play around rule changes in your party rooms and having a very conscious program for addressing the inequities that exist in political representation in many parts of this country, then you are kidding yourselves.

The global gender pay gap index is something that annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four really key dimensions. I've just spoken about the amazing work that we've done in terms of political empowerment for Australian women. But there are also the economic participation and opportunities that are assessed in these rankings, along with educational attainment, health and survival—all critical parts for quality of life by anyone's measures. As I said, our ranking has improved out of sight in the field of political empowerment and, importantly, is not going backwards in any of those other measures.

Our government is the first in this Commonwealth's history to have a majority of women. The number of women in cabinet is 10 out of 23, the largest number of women ever in an Australian federal cabinet. Women make up the vast majority of the Australian Senate—let's not forget that other house. Labor's commitments to gender-equal representation in politics have seen our rankings jump from 50th in 2022 to 29th in 2023. What a difference 12 months makes. This is no accident; it's the result of hard, deliberate, conscious and purposeful action. It is because of this commitment that our global ranking on the women-in-parliament indicator has jumped up from 48th position to 38th position. When it comes to women in ministerial positions, Australia is now ranked 19th, up from a measly 62nd. We were ranked 62nd in the world for ministerial positions for women. Twelve months later, after the election of a Labor government, we ranked 19th in the world. What a great result. We should be celebrating that. Having 53 per cent women in an Albanese Labor government ensures that gender is no add-on for us; it sits at the centre of everything we do.

The World Economic Forum knows that better gender representation leads to better outcomes. We've known that for a long time. When women are in the room, we are part of the decision-making. Make no mistake; we are participating at every step along the journey—every step. When it comes to reflecting on some of Labor's progress, I think of the very first woman to serve in the portfolio of the status of women, Labor's Susan Ryan. She was elected and took up the position in 1984. Susan Ryan started the practice of having a women's budget statement. Again, it was hard fought. When we reflect on that journey since 1984, Australia led the world in gender-responsive budgeting practices. It meant that we were conscious of what we were spending and how that was distributed and we were measuring the outcomes of that. Then there was a little glitch in the program back in 2014, a year after I had just been elected—the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott decided he'd make himself the Minister for Women. We were all pretty excited about that! And then he decided he'd scrap the gender budgeting process because Australia didn't need that anymore. Well, we saw the results of that. We slipped down those rankings because nobody in the coalition bothered to keep an eye on progress—or, as the case turned out, decline—over those years. Again it was left to a Labor government to clean up what had been an appalling track record for Australian women since 2014.

When we entered government, we started to see progress. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released just last June showed that, since the Albanese Labor government came to power, women's total employment has gone up by 249,000 women; 233,500 women have joined the labour force; women's part-time work has increased by 20,500 women; women's full-time jobs have boomed, increasing by 228,600 women; and women have accounted for 59.3 per cent of the growth in full-time jobs. That is good news for Australian women, because we know the importance of having employment security as well.

The gender pay gap is persisting across all industries, but progress to close that pay gap has typically been uneven and terribly slow in Australia. We are, again, acting on that front, because we say that women who work full time and somehow end up earning $253.50 less per week than a man doing a full-time job is unacceptable. I don't know whether that is by anyone's measure regarded as being okay. It's not good enough. Women should not be paid less than men, and it's really that simple. The Albanese Labor government is taking decisive action on this issue to close the gender pay gap, progressing gender equality and improving women's economic security through the passage of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation.

We have made sure that we are enabling bargaining to open up for workers in low-paid industries that are most likely to be female dominated. We have seen the amazing difference it makes to everyday lives when you increase the pay of the lowest-paid workers, like our aged-care workers, who just got a 15 per cent pay increase recently. And let's not kid ourselves; we know it is women who are in those low-paid, insecure jobs.

It's terrific to see the expansion and modernising of the Paid Parental Leave scheme under the Labor government as well. This will expand an employee's entitlement to flexible unpaid leave from 30 days to 100 days, ensuring that from 1 July this year employees can use their government funded paid parental leave more flexibly. That is a great outcome.

We have progressed on Respect@Work. We've expanded single parenting payments. We've got Australia's first-ever paid domestic and family violence leave. There is so much that we have done. There is still so much to achieve. We will never sit back and rest on our laurels. Labor promised to make Australia a world leader in gender equality again, and that's exactly what we are doing.