Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently I hosted an event for International Women's Day, with my special guest and good friend the honourable Minister for the Environment and Water. The theme for International Women's Day was 'Count her in: invest in women, accelerate progress'. Amongst the many who filled the Sherwood Uniting Church hall were women asking questions about housing for older women and the pressure on working parents regarding childcare.

I'm proud to be part of a government that is putting these issues front and centre through the first National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality. The Albanese Labor government has a 10-year plan to address the issues that women say matters to them. The Working for Women strategy focuses on women's safety, sharing and valuing care, economic equality, health, leadership and decision-making. Labor has already invested in cheaper child care and an expansion of paid parental leave.

But there's more work to do. Now companies with more than 100 employees have to publish information on the gender pay gap. This is a major step towards transparency, accountability and change. We announced superannuation payments on government paid parental leave, a key recommendation of the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce, and long campaigned for by unions and the women's movement. Alongside our tax cuts and key investments in cheaper child care, women's safety, women's health, parenting payments single and workplace relations reform, our government continues to focus on women's economic security as a key feature of its economic plan.

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