Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Can I wish all of the women in this place and across the country a very happy International Women's Day. I know many of us were delighted this morning to join Minister McBain and the Tangney and Lyons families at the unveiling of the Dame Enid Lyons and Dame Dorothy Tangney statues in the parliamentary precinct. It was a very fitting way to honour them, and we all acknowledge the ongoing work to recognise women across all roles in public life.

International Women's Day provides us with the chance to reflect on the accomplishments of women in our lives and where we're achieving change. This government is really proud to be leading that change. We are proud to be the first majority women federal government in Australia's history. That's a huge achievement. It means that the Australian government is more representative and more diverse than ever before, and that is a result of hard work by Labor to make representation of women in parliaments a priority.

In just nine months of this government, we've already delivered cheaper child care to help women back into work after they've had children, 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave so that no-one has to choose between their safety and their job, the biggest boost to paid parental leave since the scheme was introduced by Labor in 2011 and gender-responsive budgeting. We've handed down our first budget in nearly a decade, which cast a gendered lens over every single spending decision. We've delivered the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, supported by record funding of $1.7 billion; a wage increase for aged-care workers, the majority of whom are women; the National Women's Advisory Council to improve Australia's health system for women and girls; and funding and legislation to fully implement the 55 recommendations of Respect@Work. We've opened up consultation on amendments on the Family Law Act 1975 to ensure that it is less traumatic for women and children impacted by domestic, family and sexual violence. We've introduced legislation for $10 billion of the Housing Australia Future Fund, with 4,000 properties for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence. We introduced, of course, legislation to close the gender pay gap, exposing those industries with 100 or more workers where gender pay gaps are significant.

We know that there is a lot more to do. We know that women still experience inequality. We get paid less, have less superannuation, have fewer assets, experience higher levels of domestic and family violence, have greater unpaid work across caring responsibilities and hold fewer leadership roles. As women in this place and across the country, we know the job is never done, and the job is not yet done.

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