Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for her question and note her interest in these matters. The Howard government has a strong record of supporting women throughout their life stages. We have delivered choice and opportunities for women so that there are more jobs for women, higher pay and more educational and training opportunities. Women have benefited not only from the strong management of our economy but also from a range of initiatives and reforms including our Welfare to Work reforms, our Work Choices legislation, the increased superannuation and the co-contribution scheme and the increase in the number of child-care places that have been made available for working women.

I am pleased to announce to the House that last week, for the first time since our coming to office, the number of new jobs created for Australian women passed the one million mark: 1,013,600 new jobs for women have been created since 1996. Under Labor, there were a million people unemployed. Under the coalition, a million new jobs have been created for women. Female unemployment is at 4.8 per cent. There are in fact over 4.6 million women in employment in Australia, and that is a 28 per cent increase since 1996. Interestingly, the employment rate of women in the 60 to 64 age cohort has more than doubled since we came to office. Under the Howard government, women of Australia are receiving many more choices and many more opportunities.

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