Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins for her question. It's wonderful to see Higgins in the Labor fold. Congratulations. Supporting women to fully participate in the workforce is core business for the Albanese Labor government. For far too long women's policy has been relegated to the sidelines of public policy, an afterthought, but no longer. Under the previous government Australia fell to its worst ever position in global gender equality rankings, and that is the truth. But it's a problem we can solve and we must solve. Our great potential as a nation will be just out of reach until we do. It was great to see that women were front and centre at the jobs summit last week. More than 50 per cent of participants at the summit were women, and there were so many speakers and facilitators. It was absolutely inspiring, and the issue of improving women's workforce participation dominated much of the discussion, particularly child care. When women are deciding whether to return to work after having a child and how many hours they can work, access to high-quality affordable child care is vital.

The Albanese Labor government has listened and will act. We will deliver on our $5 billion commitment to make child care cheaper. Supporting women to fully participate in the workforce not only is the right thing to do for women up but is also critical for our nation and, importantly, critical for our economy because it will increase our economic prosperity and make us more resilient as a nation. There were also a number of concrete outcomes at the summit in relation to women. The APS will report on ambitious targets. Businesses with 500 employees or more will have to publicly report. The Workforce Gender Equality Agency will work to close the gender pay gap and capture an accurate snapshot of every pay gap that exists. But I am most pleased to say that we will strengthen the Respect@Work Council by ensuring workers and businesses have a permanent seat at the table along with government and civil society. Australia should be one of the best countries for women to live in, and under the Albanese Labor government it will be.

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