Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Moore. I know she has had a keen interest in this issue for many years. The government are serious about achieving equal pay for women, and today we made a major step in our bid to close the longstanding pay gap between men and women. In their work as counsellors, as social workers and as legal aid officers, social and community service workers make a difference every day and they deserve proper reward for their efforts.

The Prime Minster today announced that the Gillard government will help make equal pay a reality for community sector workers by making a joint submission to Fair Work Australia with the Australian Services Union in the current social and community sector equal-pay case. This means that together we will argue for rates of pay which fairly and properly value social and community sector work. Other unions who are applicants in the case will join with us—and we expect major providers will do the same—to support this argument before Fair Work Australia's full bench. If through its own independent processes the full bench agrees to the solution we propose, then community sector workers covered by this case will be paid new, fair pay rates based on the evidence of gender pay imbalance given in the case. When fully implemented this should deliver pay rates comparable to those awarded by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in its landmark 2009 case. The government will propose that pay increases start on 1 December next year and be gradually phased in over six years. This commitment comes at a cost to the federal budget of over $2 billion over the full phase-in period, but this will help deliver a historic pay rise to 150,000 of Australia's lowest paid workers, including 120,000 women working in difficult jobs often described as 'caring jobs'. This is a historic measure that seeks to address the serious imbalance for those women in caring professions.