Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It needs to be said: our economy does not treat women equally or fairly. It needs to be said: there is too much gender inequality in Australia, and we are making far too little progress in dealing with it. It needs to be said: our superannuation and retirement income system does not treat women equally or fairly. We know that there's a gender pay gap in Australia. We know that women earn around 19 per cent less than men, across our economy. But we also know that, over a woman's working life, that compounds year on year and is worsened by the fact that women take time out of the workforce to raise their children. It means that the income gap in retirement is even worse, and that women retire, on average, with 40 per cent less than men. If we look at the median account balances of men and women, the story is even worse. The median account balance for a man at retirement is $110,000. The median account balance for a woman at retirement is $36,000. We know that only two in 10 women in Australia in 2018 retire with a level of income high enough to be regarded as retiring in comfort. We know that the biggest single cause of a rise in homelessness between 2011 and 2016 was a 31 per cent rise in homelessness for older women.

This is not okay. In Australia in 2018, a country that prides itself on being the land of the fair go, we should be doing better. We can be doing better. Today, with the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Barton, the member for Hotham and I together, Labor announced a concrete plan. It won't fix all the problems, it won't solve all the issues, but it is a serious, concrete plan when it comes to women's retirement income. Our plan to pay the superannuation guarantee during paid parental leave will help 250,000 people a year. It will mean a payment of about $1,200. But of course it unleashes the miracle of compound interest. That $1,200 will be paid early in a woman's working life, almost by definition. It will compound year on year. Taking the example of a woman who has three children, at the ages of 27, 29 and 31—quite a common pattern—that will compound to an increase in that woman's superannuation balance at retirement of $18,590.

There's a second element to the plan we announced today. Many Australians perhaps don't realise that when we talk about universal superannuation, it's not actually universal. If you earn less than $450 a month from any one employer, you don't get paid your superannuation; it's not compulsory to be paid superannuation. This was done at a different time, when payrolls were a lot less automated than they are today. It's been that way for a long time. But the increase in casualisation has actually made it worse. Many people, not just women but mainly women, work more than one job, and they have to work more than one job because those jobs pay less than $450 a month. Those people don't get superannuation. There's no requirement to pay superannuation to those people. It's time to end that. It's time to say that superannuation should be truly universal. It's time to say that Australia's lowest-income earners deserve superannuation too.

Today we announced a plan to do just that. We'll phase it out, to give business time to adjust, but we'll get rid of it. The $450-a-month threshold should be zero and will be zero under a Shorten Labor government. Sixty thousand people will benefit from this in the first year, and, by the time we've entirely abolished the threshold, 400,000 people will benefit. If you bring these two elements together, the superannuation guarantee and the $450 threshold, and you take a woman who's had three children and spent some time doing a job that pays less than $450 a month, she'll be around $30,000 better off when it comes to her retirement income.

We've announced other things today as well. We've announced that, if an employer wants to pay more into a female's superannuation account because they're concerned about the gender imbalance in their workplace, we'll get rid of the red tape. At the moment, if an employer wants to do that, they have to go to the Human Rights Commission and seek permission. The government say they want to get rid of red tape. Let's get rid of that red tape. Let's let an employer do that.

Today we've recommitted to a Labor government also releasing—I as Treasurer in a Labor government, when bringing down the budget at the despatch box, will also release—a women's budget statement, because, when I bring down a budget, I will be comfortable with people being able to look at the budget and say, 'What's the impact of this budget on Australia's women?' I want to be held to account for that. When we make policy decisions, I want to be held to account, as Treasurer, for the impact of those decisions on Australia's women.

Of course, we would welcome it if the government adopted these plans. We would welcome it if Australians didn't have to wait for a Labor government for these plans to be implemented. I have to say, and I say in all seriousness: we've seen a lack of progress from this government on matters of gender inequality in our economy. There are some areas where they've just done nothing, and areas where they've taken very little action. Superannuation is one. They abolished the low-income superannuation contribution, before bringing it back. As I said: in fairness to the government, you can't bring something back until you've abolished it—that was probably their logic!

There has been a lack of action on domestic violence leave. The government will say they've introduced domestic violence leave—five days—

Opposition members: Unpaid!

Five days, unpaid. Well, we think Australian victims of domestic violence—not all women, but mainly women—deserve 10 days paid domestic violence leave. We can afford that in 2018 in Australia.

The things that we've announced today don't fix all the problems. There is more to do, and we'll have more to say. Women in Australia earn, on average, around 77c in the dollar compared to men. There's more to do. Women are under-represented in the most senior ranks of our economy—under-represented on boards, under-represented when it comes to senior corporate positions, under-represented in government, under-represented in parliament, and particularly under-represented on one side of parliament. We're one of the very few OECD countries that has not had a female in positions equivalent to Secretary of the Treasury, Governor of the Reserve Bank, Chair of APRA, Chair of ASIC and Chair of the ACCC—all of those positions. Not once in our history has a female filled those roles. We're pretty unique around the world for that. We can do a whole better.

Ms O'Dwyer interjecting—

If there are more women in the senior ranks of decision-making in the economy, women will be at the centre of decision-making more often. More often, the decision-making bodies, whether they be the cabinet room or the Reserve Bank board, will say: 'What are the impacts of our decision on women? What are the impacts of what we do on Australia's women?'

Women deserve more than cliches. And this government has not only taken very little action; in many instances, they've taken adverse action. This government has sat by as penalty rates have been cut. We on this side of the House have pointed out that Australians who work on weekends and Sundays deserve to be paid that bit extra. But the majority of those people are women. The majority of people who work on Sundays are women in low-paid jobs; women, predominantly, do those jobs, and younger women do those jobs, to make ends meet. This government has sat by while their wages have been cut—the first non-negotiated, non-traded-off wage cut we've had in Australia since the Great Depression. And the government says: 'That's okay.' 'There's nothing we can do,' they say. Well, there's something they can do—they can legislate, as an incoming Shorten Labor government will do, to correct the error, so that women and all people who work on Sundays get paid what they deserve.

Women deserve more than cliches. They don't need to be told that women hold up half the sky. They don't need to be told that women are an important part of our economy and our society and we couldn't do without women. Women actually deserve action. It's Australia, in 2018. That's why: because it's 2018, and Australia can do better when it comes to women in our economy.

A lack of females at senior levels makes a difference; a lack of females in the senior levels of government makes a difference. I'm very proud of the fact that I've worked with great colleagues—the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Hotham, the member for Barton and others—in getting this policy done. We're men and women working together, men and women who know that women deserve better—men and women who actually think it should be a priority for a Prime Minister and a Treasurer to say: '27 years of uninterrupted economic growth is good, but women deserve a slice of the action.' (Time expired)

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