Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you well know, at Federation, women did not have the right to vote. Once granted the right to vote, it took until 1943 to see the first female representatives in this parliament. Even then, the legal and economic barriers facing women were profound and long-lasting. We couldn't open a bank account until 1971 without a male guarantor—may well you laugh. For decades, women in the Commonwealth Public Service were subject to so-called 'marriage bar', which required them to resign from their jobs when they married. We couldn't even get a loan or a mortgage until 1984. It was only with legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984 that discrimination on the basis of sex became unlawful in workplaces and public life. In 2023, Australia fully decriminalised abortion across every state and territory. That was only three years ago.

These restrictions are not ancient history. They exist within living memory for millions of Australian women. But now, in 2026, we are at the precipice of real change. The median gender pay gap sits at just 16.4 per cent, the lowest it has ever been. Women are now being paid superannuation on their Paid Parental Leave, further closing the retirement savings gap that has historically left women with significantly less financial security in later life. Women will not pay more than $25 for birth control or menopause support on PBS prescriptions. These changes matter because the cost of health care should never be a barrier to women's wellbeing.

Australia is now ranked 13th globally for gender equality by the World Economic Forum, our highest ranking ever. Just a few years ago, in 2022, we sat at 43rd. It is proof that representation matters and I'm proud to be part of Australia's first woman-majority government party room, and across the country women are increasingly present in leadership roles in business, education and public life. But make no mistake, this progress has been achieved by having women at the table, by women being directly involved in the decisions that shape their futures.

Australia needs to have a serious conversation with itself. There is an online undercurrent that is sweeping some young men away. The 'manosphere' is a loose network of largely predominantly online groups that, sadly, in many cases, are promoting misogyny and in some cases are radicalising men towards violence against women. These groups are united in their opposition to feminism and in their holding of very traditional views of gender roles. They misrepresent men as victims of the current social and political climate. They describe the hard-fought equality that women have achieved over many years as 'things having gone too far', as if you can have too much equality. Some of these misogynists use terms like 'female humanoid organism', an insult meant to suggest women are not only less than men but less than human. There are also self-proclaimed pick-up artists, who teach members how to coerce and manipulate women into sex and who openly mock the idea of sexual consent.

Research and reporting from Australia's eSafety Commissioner has warned about the way social media algorithms can funnel young users towards increasingly extreme misogynistic content. What can begin as curiosity can quickly become radicalisation. This content infects our children. They are exposed to it online. One school teacher described her experience of working with children who had fallen into this trap, saying, 'I had a year 9 boy complete a creative writing exercise that basically described an act of gang rape towards me.'

These attitudes are not harmless online bravado. They have real-world consequences. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, one in four women has experienced violence from an intimate partner. When young men are taught to see women as objects, or enemies or less than human, those statistics become more likely not less.

The Labor government is working to protect our children from this radicalisation. We have introduced new online safety codes, on the back of the under-16s social media ban, to limit children's access to the R-rated material that is often used as a hook by these groups. Governments can and should act, but government alone cannot solve this problem. Support must also come from inside the home, and I implore everybody to take a role and to work hard to combat the rise in misogyny.