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

A sickening number of gendered violence incidents and deaths have been dominating our headlines in 2024. To stave off despair about this national scourge, I wanted to take a few minutes to look at the positive inclusions in this year's budget that are directed towards women. I do this with the acknowledgement that there is still a lot of work to do and that no one federal budget can resolve every social issue.

Since coming into office only two years ago, the Albanese Labor government has been focused on putting women and gender equality front and centre of Australia's economic plan. This government is determined to make women's lives safer, fairer and more equal. Labor leads by example, and I'm proud that the Labor Party in this 47th Parliament is 53 per cent women. As I'm sure you would attest, Deputy Speaker Andrews, you can't be what you can't see—that goes for young women. Can I say that you have personally been quite the inspiration to your community, Deputy Speaker.

It was a Labor government, under the late, great Bob Hawke, that first introduced the Women's Budget Statement—a world first. Our now-restored Women's Budget Statement speaks to the key aims and values of the Albanese Labor government. It focuses on education and employment, respect at work and equal pay, and measures to keep women and children safe.

To put this year's Women's Budget Statement in context, earlier this year Labor launched the first national strategy to achieve gender equality. Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality is a 10-year plan with the vision of a nation where people are safe, treated with respect, have choices and have access to resources and equal outcomes no matter what their gender. The strategy has five priority areas for action: (1) gendered violence; (2) unpaid and paid care; (3) economic equality and security; (4) health; and (5) leadership. Our Labor budget focuses on these five key areas.

Recently in this chamber I spoke on gendered violence. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity a few weeks ago to listen to Jess Hill and Michael Salter talk about their work 'Rethinking primary prevention'. A key focus of their recommendations is on working to prevent gendered violence, including stopping perpetrators from reoffending. They are driving the conversation about regulation for industries such as alcohol, pornography and gambling, all of which are known to exacerbate gendered violence. Jess and Michael also talked about combating the effects of intergenerational trauma, child neglect and child abuse, for both potential perpetrators and potential victims.

Labor is investing $1.3 million over two years to undertake a rapid review of evidence based approaches to preventing gender based violence. The expert panel, including Jess Hill, will provide practical advice to government on further action, including a focus on high-risk perpetrators: those people who turn up in front of magistrates time after time after time—often, in a world of misery. Diverting them down a more sensible path earlier, before they reach that valley of tears, and worse, is a fine thing to attempt to do. The review's first report is due in the third quarter of this year. The budget also set aside $4.3 million for Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety to further investigate and establish the evidence base on both the drivers of and recovery from the perpetration of gendered violence.

Our approach to taking action on gendered violence is not just about research; it's about actual, tangible, on-the-ground support as well. We've directed over $925 million over five years to permanently establish the Leaving Violence Program. Eligible victims-survivors will be able to access up to $5,000 in financial support to help them leave, as well as receiving assistance with referral services.

Further financial help is available with the back-to-back boost to Commonwealth rent assistance, as well as the expanded eligibility for parenting payment single. We are also backing this up with further measures on social housing and homelessness. We've negotiated the $9.3 billion national agreement with the states and territories, and we're also directing a $1 billion increase in funding for crisis and transitional accommodation for women, children and youth.

Labor is also focused on improving the experience of women on university campuses across the country. We're developing a national higher education code to prevent and respond to gender based violence. This will require universities to strengthen their accountability. We're also establishing a national student ombudsman—an office to provide support for students for a range of complaints about their higher education provider, including those related to sexual harassment and violence.

I'd also note Labor's reform of paid parental leave to include superannuation. That kicks off on 1 July 2025. Taking time out to care for children is a normal part of working life for both parents. Paying super on paid parental leave will normalise parental leave as a workplace entitlement, encourage more equal sharing of care, show that our society values the carer role and ensure that more women can access a dignified retirement. Paying super on government paid parental leave is a key step in prioritising gender equality. It's a crucial investment to close the super gap, which affects women's retirement income significantly. This super gap currently sits at around 25 per cent.

This reform builds on Labor's historic investment in Australia's paid parental leave. We've already made it easier for both parents to access and share care, and our legislation means we'll have added an extra six weeks by 2026. Since Monday, families have had access to two extra weeks of leave. This will increase until the scheme reaches 26 weeks by July 2026.

This budget also focuses on the care economy and the paid care work that women—overwhelmingly women—do on top of their unpaid work. I'm talking about the aged-care workers and early-childhood educators, who will all be receiving wage increases to recognise the importance of their work. It's a sad reflection that these roles are often undervalued and underpaid. Since 1 July, we've taken some steps towards changing that.

We're working on changing the perception of both unpaid and paid care work. We're making the carer payment more flexible, so that recipients—mainly women—can do paid work, study or volunteering. We're further supporting eligible nursing, midwifery, teaching and social-work students—who are, predominantly, women—with a prac support payment. That's over $427 million to enable those students to undertake mandatory prac placements and bolster the number of people entering these in-demand professions. We made a further 400,000 places available in our fee-free TAFE scheme, with women making up 60 per cent of those enrolments. All these measures go toward improved economic equality and security for women. Monday's cost-of-living tax cuts provide greater relief for low- and middle-income taxpayers, a group—not surprisingly—disproportionately made up of women. All 6.5 million women taxpayers will receive that tax cut this year, with an average annual benefit of around $1,650. This will ease the pressure on household budgets, along with that $300 energy rebate for every household. Labor has also resolved the issue with indexation to help fees, wiping around $3 billion in debt and ensuring that future indexation to HELP is at the rate of the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index. This will directly benefit women, who hold the majority of HELP debts.

This budget includes more than $160 million directly targeted at women's health supports. We've added crucial breast cancer treatment medicines to the PBS and reduced the cost of the medicine from $97,000 per course to a maximum of only $31.60 per script. Labor is establishing endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics across Australia—clinics that will provide multidisciplinary care and enable more appropriate and more timely diagnosis and management. Endometriosis is a debilitating chronic condition that affects one in nine girls and women in Australia. These clinics will ensure improved pain management for sufferers. There is also funding to support high-quality maternity care, support for women who have suffered miscarriage, and free period products supplied by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations.

Finally, we have focused on setting women up for future jobs for a future made in Australia and more leadership opportunities. There is $38 million over eight years to bolster the STEM workforce. We are also launching the Building Women's Careers Program. We established the Working for Women Program to support the drive for gender equality. Part of this will have government boards that have 50 per cent representation of women and will make sure that half of the chairs and deputy chairs are women also. We are focusing on collecting data and improving things.

All Australians know there is still work to do on gender equality—the newspaper headlines tell us this every day. We are in the midst of a national crisis in gendered violence, but we will keep working at it.

See this speech in context