Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, several published reports have pointed to women as the big losers coming out of COVID and the consequent recession and continuing lockdowns. Last year, eight per cent of Australian women lost their jobs, and women's total hours worked were down by 12 per cent. The figures for men were four and seven per cent. A report from the Grattan Institute shows that in November 2020 there were 40,000 fewer women with bachelors' degrees employed than at the start of that year, while trends for men went in the opposite direction, and that when university qualified women regain employment it's at a lower rate of pay. The responsibility for caring for and homeschooling children falls mostly to women, and, during lockdown, rates of domestic violence increase dramatically. There's no doubt that the effects of COVID and the subsequent recession have negatively impacted women's earnings and economic security.

Some of the Morrison government's decisions have adversely impacted women, such as carving out universities, a sector whose workforce is 59 per cent female, from JobKeeper. Early childhood educators, an almost 100 per cent female workforce, won't forget that Mr Morrison slashed their JobKeeper subsidy first, leaving some of Australia's lowest paid without anything. Finally, just a few days ago, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency reported that the gender pay gap has widened to 14.2 per cent. These are all structural issues the government can do something about. But, whether it's sexual abuse, the allegations of rape in this parliament, their male focused budget or the government's failure to respond in a timely manner to the Respect@Work report, we have a Prime Minister with a tin ear when it comes to women. He sees women not in their own right but as someone's mother, daughter, sister or aunt, and women voters, 51 per cent— (Time expired)