Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for her question and commend her for the leadership she shows in her community for so many young women, and I've had the chance to see that on several occasions. Women's economic security is at the centre of so many aspects of their lives—their independence; the choices they make for themselves, their families, their children and their parents; and their identity, health and wellbeing. The Morrison government recognises that, central to this, is increasing women's workforce participation. So it is an economic and a social priority.

The 2020 Women's Economic Security Statement—and we built on that package of measures from the 2018 Women's Economic Security Statement—coming in the middle of the COVID pandemic did many things, including bringing women back to work, and we've succeeded in more than 90 per cent of women being re-employed as we come out of COVID. It's a $240 million package over five years, and it's focused on five key priority areas, repairing and rebuilding women's workforce participation and further closing the gender pay gap. That's narrower than it's been for a while, but we have more work to do: greater choice and flexibility for families to manage work and child care; supporting women as leaders and positive role models; responding to the diverse needs of women; and supporting women to be safe at work and safe at home. So the 2020 statement is a plan to equip and enable our economy to support women.

I want to highlight a couple of areas, in particular addressing the barriers for equal representation in STEM, something the minister for industry has fought hard for. As part of that statement, the industry minister's Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship program, Girls in STEM and Women in STEM Ambassador roles have enabled so many young women to shoot for the stars, helping address that underrepresentation in this critical area.

Similarly, in my own electorate, I was in Griffith in the Riverina recently for part of the Mid-Career Checkpoint program that the Minister for Women in the other place is undertaking. I sat around a table with skilled women in an accounting firm. They step away from their career—mid-career—and it's about how they get back, how they contribute and how they take on the skills. To see them encouraged and supported and contributing was incredible to see, and that's just one of the programs that's coming out of our Women's Economic Security Statement. There are many others: Boosting Female Founders, focusing on supporting women in regional and rural areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women with a disability and first generation migrants. These plans leave no woman behind.

As we come out of COVID with JobMaker and JobTrainer, as I said, 90 per cent of the jobs held by women have come back. We've had 800,000 jobs come back in just the last eight months. (Time expired)

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