Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'd love to respond to these questions, but I'm conscious of time. It would be nice to have some respect for women who are actually trying to listen to these answers.

We have a deep understanding of how important it is to be able to encourage women back into the workforce and to ensure that, for instance, Australian public servants who want to return to work have got a very supportive environment. As someone who nursed children and returned to work at a fairly early stage, I'm conscious, probably more than most, of the need to have an environment in the Australian Public Service where nursing mothers can be supported. That is why I'm very pleased that we are conducting a review of the Australian Public Service to make sure that those facilities are available to women who are returning to work so that they don't have to choose between work and their children; they can in fact do both.

I'm also very happy to respond—if I'm given just a little more time—to the member for Griffith. I note that, when it comes to women's leadership funding, she's quite right to point out that we haven't yet hit the end of the financial year. All of the money has, in fact, been expended. There will be announcements made in relation to that funding. I'm not going to make them now, but I know she will be very interested when those funding announcements are made before the end of the financial year.

I'm very pleased to also respond to her question about the gender neutrality of our taxation system. I find it rather ironic that that question is coming from those opposite. They talk about the impact of taxation on women. I'm really quite intrigued by this, because they have announced a megatax on retirees that would absolutely punish women. It would have a disproportionate impact on women. It would affect 30 per cent more women. With this claim from those opposite that they care about women and the tax consequences for women, they might like to examine their megatax on retirees, which is something that they have put on the table and that all women in this country— (Time expired)

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