Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion that acknowledges that we celebrated and observed International Women's Day on 8 March. International Women's Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It is a big day for inspiration and change. This year the theme of International Women's Day was 'press for progress'. I am very proud to be a member of the Turnbull government, a government that is continuing to deliver progress and better outcomes for women in my electorate of Chisholm and indeed across Australia. To put it simply, the Turnbull government is fully committed to supporting and encouraging women in Australia so that there will be no limits to what they can aspire to achieve. The Turnbull government is certainly pressing for progress regarding the status of women in our society. Indeed, equality for all Australians underpins our government's agenda. The Turnbull government is committed to redressing entrenched gender inequities through striving to achieve equality of opportunity for all Australians by implementing integral policies, including a focus on galvanising women's safety and economic security through access to employment, as well as minimising homelessness and optimising educational outcomes, to name a few.

As the chair of the newly formed Parliamentary Friends of Women's Health, which is to be launched today, I'm particularly pleased to speak today about our broad-based health initiatives, which target the health issues that specifically pertain to women or for which there are high incidences or differing symptoms between women and men. Most notably, I'm proud to report on the Turnbull government's groundbreaking policies that are saving and will continue to save lives by significantly reducing the incidence of health challenges such as the diagnosis of ovarian, cervical and breast cancers. The Turnbull government is committed to tackling cancer and provides, through Medicare, support for women who are suffering from cancer. Last November we added two new Medicare items for the testing of gene mutations that predispose women to cancers. We've also moved to ensure that medicines to treat cancer are more affordable by increasing government spending on PBS medicines in the last financial year.

With regard to early detection and screening for breast cancer, the last federal budget announced funding of $64.3 million over the next four years to allow BreastScreen Australia to continue to actively invite women aged 70 to 74 to screen for the early detection. More broadly, the government has invested over $10 billion for cancer control activities, and in the last financial year the government invested around $2.9 billion for cancer control activities. These measures are just some examples of how our government is striving to ensure that all Australian women can reach affordable and timely health care.

The Turnbull government is committed to ensuring the safety of Australian women and children and redressing the rates of family and domestic violence in our nation. Most notably, our $100 million Women's Safety Package is directly targeting the causes and effects of violence against women, including $59 million for practical and immediate action to keep women and children safe, including provision of security technologies; the development of the Australian government's eSafety Women website, which empowers women to take control and safeguard themselves and their children from technology-facilitated abuse; $36 million for training in frontline services; $5 million for outstanding educational resources; importantly, $25 million to address family violence in Indigenous communities; and $30 million for frontline legal assistance and family law services.

The Turnbull government is fully committed to supporting women's employment, encouraging women into leadership positions and increasing financial empowerment of women. We've set an ambitious but achievable target for women to hold 50 per cent of Australian government board positions. From a productivity and intergenerational perspective and given our ageing population, there must be increased participation of women in the workforce and in leadership. As such, our government has made it a priority to reduce the workforce participation gap for Australian women by 25 per cent by 2025. More women in the workforce means more women being made ready for leadership positions. Increased participation of women in the workplace is intrinsically linked to providing these opportunities for women, so the Turnbull government's significant childcare reforms include the allocation of an additional $2.5 billion for a number of childcare initiatives and also investing $430 million to support universal access to preschool and $263 million for the rollout of ParentsNext, as well as other measures to boost women's workforce participation. I'm proud to be part of the Turnbull government which has focused on support for women to ensure progress for future generations of Australian women.

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