Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) International Women's Day will be held on Sunday, 8 March 2020; and

(b) the theme for 2020 is 'Each for Equality', which calls on all of us to 'Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality;

(2) recognises that entrenched gender inequities remain, including:

(a) high rates of family and domestic violence, sexual violence and harassment;

(b) the under-representation of women in leadership roles; and

(c) pay inequity and the undervaluation of work in traditionally female industries; and

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) make gender equality a central priority;

(b) commit to urgent action to improve Australian women’s:

(i) safety and physical security;

(ii) economic security and retirement incomes;

(iii) health and reproductive rights; and

(iv) representation in Australian parliaments; and

(c) reinstate the Women’s Budget Statement.

I am very pleased to stand to speak on this motion to recognise International Women's Day. The theme for 2020—'each for equal'—is a call-out to each of us to work together to achieve gender equality. It recognises that every individual has a role to play. Here in this place we bear a particular responsibility when it comes to gender equality, as many of the levers that can bring about change are controlled from this building. We are in a profoundly privileged position of having power to make a difference. The flipside of this is that we must take responsibility when in fact there is little progress.

Looking back over the decades, there has certainly been significant forward momentum for women in Australia. On the Labor side, I'm particularly proud to a member of the party that instituted no-fault divorce, that created supporting mothers benefits, that ensured the pill was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, that gave women the right to the minimum wage and of course reopened the equal pay case that saw women's wages rise by 30 per cent.

But on a shorter time scale things are not looking so rosy. All of the key metrics, by any measure, suggest that we need to do better. While the gender pay gap has been tracking down for a few years now, parity is a long way off. According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, men working full time earn more than $25,000 per year more than women working full time. This is an astounding gap. Female dominated industries like aged care and early childhood education are still chronically underpaid, despite undertaking some of the most important work in our communities.

Women are also gravely under-represented in leadership roles. Last year only 17.1 per cent of CEOs were women—unchanged from the previous year. Female representation on boards inched up by just one per cent to 26.8 percent. This place isn't much better. While the Labor Party brought in a strong quota system, the Liberal Party has steadfastly opposed this. The result has been that while Labor has almost achieved parity, less than a quarter of Liberal members in the House of Representatives are women. This matters. When we have more women at the decision-making table, we get better, more inclusive policies, which help women, children and families. When it comes to policy development, the government could do one thing today that would make a huge difference. They could implement gender-sensitive budgeting and reinstate the women's budget statement, which was axed when the Liberals came to office.

When it comes to gender issues, the most diabolical failure of all—the greatest indictment of all of us in this place—is our failure to reduce, let alone stop, gendered violence. One in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and one woman a week continues to be murdered by her former or current partner. Last week we held a vigil to remember Hannah Clarke and her three children, who were violently murdered by the children's father. We rightly condemned this brutal act, but it keeps on happening. Already this year nine women have lost their lives violently. Clearly this is a truly wicked problem with complex and intertwined factors at play. I recommend to members in this House that they read Jess Hill's insightful book See what you made me do: power, control and domestic violencefor a thorough analysis and specific calls to action when it comes to family law and policing.

I would like to draw the House's attention to one thing we could do right now. I am Deputy Chair of the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. We did an extensive inquiry into how we might improve the family law system to better support and protect those affected by family violence. I would like to draw the House's attention to recommendation 19 in the report of this inquiry—which, I emphasise, was a consensus, bipartisan report. This recommendation calls on the government to consider removing the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, which creates a dangerous situation for women and children escaping violence. We know that the post-separation period is one of the most dangerous times for women and children. This is something the government can do right now.

See this speech in context