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

I would like to thank the shadow minister for women for raising this issue today. I also commend her for her longstanding commitment to gender equality and her tireless hard work and advocacy for Australian women. The disproportionate and devastating economic impact of COVID on women is indisputable. Throughout the pandemic women have seen their jobs disappear, their unpaid workloads climb, while they have been disproportionately excluded from government support. And their superannuation balances have stalled, gone backwards or disappeared entirely.

Even before COVID-19, gender inequality was baked into the system in so many ways. On virtually almost every measure, women came out second-best on pay rates, on superannuation and retirement incomes, on employment opportunities, on workplace bullying and sexual harassment, and the list goes on. As a result of all the systemic inequality, women over 50 are now the fastest growing cohort of people facing homelessness. Regrettably, this pandemic has only deepened those pre-existing fault lines despite the fact that it has been women who we have relied on to care for us and to protect us throughout these perilous times.

But rather than being recognised for this vital role, women have borne the brunt of the crisis at every turn. Indeed, women were the first to lose their jobs as widespread shutdowns hit the retail, hospitality and accommodation service sectors, where they are disproportionately employed. Then as shutdowns spread and children were increasingly kept home, the increased burden of care and education was largely borne by women. While this has meant increased unpaid hours, it has also restricted the paid work that women have been able to undertake. Women are also more likely to be employed in casual jobs that were excluded by the Morrison government from the JobKeeper wage subsidy. And then, in a stroke of bitter irony, the first and only group of workers to have JobKeeper removed early were the early childhood educators, 95 per cent of whom are women.

But it gets worse, because the disproportionate economic impact on women will again rear its head in September when part-time workers—again more likely to be women—will have their wage subsidy halved to $750 a fortnight. Even as the economy starts to add jobs, women seem to be returning to work at lower rates than men. Certainly, this has been the case in my electorate of Newcastle. We gained 3,800 jobs in July but only 400 of them were filled by women. Given all these terrible inequities it's no wonder that more women than men turned to the Morrison government's offer to withdraw superannuation early. Indeed, AMP estimates that 14 per cent of women have cleared out their entire superannuation balances. Sadly, this could slash more than $100,000 from their retirement balances and impact their financial security for life. To add insult to injury, they will be less able to make up these losses thanks to the stubborn gender pay gap, which has failed to drop below 14 per cent in two decades.

While women are bearing the brunt of this grave disruptive virus, inequality impacts all Australians. But we can turn this around because we know that when gender equality increases the benefits also flow to the broader economy and the community in many ways. Indeed, the McKenzie Institute estimates that if action is taken to advance gender equality we could add up to a staggering $13 trillion to the global GDP. To this end, the United Nations has called on governments across the planet to act. Specifically, it's calling for equal representation of women in all COVID-19 response planning and decision-making, and it's asking governments for real transformative change to the care economy, both paid and unpaid.

It's now more than ever the Morrison government must bring a gendered lens to the budget process. Every minister should be asking how their policies and decisions will impact women and girls so we can address equality in recovery too. A single-mined focus on shovel-ready jobs and industries that employ few women is not acceptable. Australia's pink collar recession demands a new toolkit, a new economic response. Don't let us down, Prime Minister. (Time expired)

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