Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I think this is an important backdrop to the consideration of appointments. The former Howard government appointed 19 men and one woman. Why was it that across almost 12 years in industrial relations only one out of 20 appointments was a woman? Why was it that the Howard government when in office formed the view that women were too incompetent or too underqualified to take these appointments? I think that is a question working Australian women would be asking themselves. Of the appointments, only two had union backgrounds, one had a government background and the rest largely had employer backgrounds, including four former Liberal staffers. That is interesting—mates appointments.

On the question of who has been appointed to Fair Work Australia under this government, 19 appointments have been made so far—12 dual appointments and seven as a result of advertisements. They comprise 13 men and six women. It is a far better record than that of those opposite. Nine have a union background, four have an employer background, three have a legal background and three have a government background. We obviously want high-quality applicants to respond to the advertisements. Each appointment that has been made has been recommended by my department. I suggest to those opposite that if they are genuinely concerned about this matter then they should be encouraging high-quality applicants.

I am more than happy to answer the childcare questions, but I may need a little additional time to do that so I alert people to that now. Let me say to the shadow minister—and I know the shadow minister has been recently appointed to her job—that there is any amount of information in the public domain on the questions she has asked. The government has been through a huge consultation process on the quality agenda involving regulatory impact statements and COAG negotiations. Any amount of documentation is available and I would refer her to it. But she has made a completely incorrect statement about the effect of the quality agenda on childcare fees, and I do not want Australian parents to listen to that and be concerned about that because it is simply not right. (Time expired)

See this speech in context