Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] The fastest growing cohort of homeless Australians are women over 55. Yet, despite a trillion dollars of debt in this budget, there wasn't a single dollar for social housing.

Australian women are facing financial hardship because of structural inequalities in the economy. Even before the coronavirus, unequal pay, superannuation gaps and time away from the workforce have left Australian women financially disadvantaged. Australian women are working for less, and it's not good enough. But this is not just a women's issue; this is an Australian issue, and one that we should be speaking about regardless of our gender.

Australian women don't need glossy budget papers from the Morrison government. Australian women need a government with a plan to reduce the pay gap. We need a plan to make sure Australian women are not homeless. We need a plan to reduce the hurdles for women to return to the workforce and we need to ensure that there are pathways for women to retire with enough assets.

This is a bad budget for Australian women in so many ways, and it leaves too many people behind. But this government's failure to invest in housing will hurt our economy and it will leave too many Australian women vulnerable. The government cut JobKeeper from childcare workers, they ignore the housing crisis, they don't have a plan for equal pay and they're going to leave unemployed women with $40 a day. It's just not good enough. We can and we must do better for Australian women.

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