Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Women, Senator Gallagher. Improving women's economic equality is rightly a priority of the Albanese government. The recent employment white paper notes that this will require focus on ways we can better value and share care to reduce workforce gender segregation. The white paper also notes that Australia has one of the highest rates of women working part time in the OECD, and analysis released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency today backs this finding, highlighting our challenges in workforce participation. So can the minister please outline the government's understanding of women's experiences of part-time work in Australia and what this means for their economic security?

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

I thank Senator Pratt for the question. As she points out in her question to me, WGEA has today released important new data indicating how part-time work is affecting women's economic equality. WGEA's annual employer census showed that women were more likely to work part time than men. In the survey, 30 per cent of women worked part time, compared to 11 per cent of men. The WGEA data also confirmed that seven per cent of management roles were held by part-time employees. WGEA said that the data pointed to what it called what a part-time promotion cliff for women.

Australia has one of the highest rates of women in part-time employment in the OECD, behind the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan. A key driver of these different patterns of employment is the significant and long-term adjustments women typically make to their paid employment following the arrival of children, while at the same time men's employment patterns remain largely unchanged. Working part time means women's incomes are lower and they retire with less super and savings. This contributes to the gender earnings gap, which still sits at 13 per cent nationally. This data demonstrates that we have a long way to go to achieve economic equality for women, with women still taking on the majority of care roles in households, which has flow-on impacts on their workforce participation. There must be greater recognition that a rich career often includes times of working differently, including to care for children, and this should not be incompatible with advancement, recognition or working in senior roles. Families should be supported to share care more equally, enabling both parents to have time to care for and connect with their children. That is why our investment in child care and our parental leave reforms—which provide each parent four weeks of reserve leave from by 2026, when the full scheme is implemented—encourages that shared care.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. Senator Pratt, first supplementary?

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In light of the WGEA data, could the minister please tell the Senate what action the Albanese government is taking to close the gender pay gap and support overall workforce participation, safety at work and the economic independence of Australian women?

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

I thank Senator Pratt for the supplementary. There are some reforms that we've introduced to the published: the gender pay gaps of employers with 100 or more workers, which is a key reform to drive transparency and action towards closing the gender pay gap and will be key, I think, to shining a bit of light on what's going on. I think many businesses I've spoken to are supportive of that reform.

Workforce gender segregation contributes to the gender pay gap, as men continue to dominate in industries and occupations with higher earnings and women in occupations with lower earnings, also reflecting the historical undervaluing of feminised jobs. So we need to come at this through a variety of ways, including through the Australian Skills Guarantee, through the reforms under the gender pay gap reporting and through our support for proper wages in aged care and proper funding and indexation for community organisations, another area where workers are predominantly women.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Pratt, second supplementary?

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline how the government is working to address the challenges facing women's employment and economic participation? How will this approach help tackle long-term inequality and improve outcomes for Australian women?

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

The government has made addressing women's economic equality central to our decision-making in government, so you have seen the reforms that we've introduced through our measures around investments in child care and those reforms I talked about in gender pay gap reporting. We've got measures across the education and training sectors, through the Skills Guarantee. We've addressed some of the big issues around the parenting payment single and programs like ParentsNext. I've got the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce report, which will feed into the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality next year. All of that is pulling in the direction of wanting to address some of the structural barriers to women's economic independence and economic equality and make sure that women get a fair crack at the opportunities going forward.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.