Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Stewart for that supplementary as well. Recently, Jobs and Skills Australia confirmed that only 21 per cent of occupations in Australia could be considered gender balanced. Industry gender segregation is a driver of the gender wage gap. We know that. There's also a clear correlation between segregated industries and the worker shortages that we're currently facing. For more than half of the occupations in the national shortage, women make up less than 20 per cent of the total workforce. These occupations include metal fitters and machinists; motor mechanics; electricians, where only two per cent of the workforce are women; mining engineers; construction managers; and software and application programmers. For 14 per cent of occupations in the national shortage, men make up less than 20 per cent of the total workforce. This is something we are going to continue to focus on. We want to make sure that we are dealing with gender segregation and that we're getting much more balance across those industries because it's good for pay and good for addressing workforce shortage.