Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Sport. How is the Albanese Labor government working to promote women's participation in all aspects of sport, on and off the field?

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dunkley for their question. She is the first-ever female president of Squash & Racquetball Victoria and she has been decorated for her contribution to increasing women's participation in sport. I also acknowledge the other female athletes who are elected to this place: the member for McKellar and the member for Warringah, who I hope will join with the Albanese Labor government in bringing integrity and equality back to sport.

We want to increase opportunities for women's participation in sport. We want to support elite female athletes and we want to encourage more women to take up leadership positions in sport at all levels. Instead of continuing to try and retrofit women into a system built for men, we want to build a system now that acknowledges and accepts everybody in sport at all levels. Instead of continuing to try to retrofit women, we are going to start anew. We are going to close the gender pay gap.

The Albanese government stands for closing the gender pay gap whether you work at a desk, in a factory or in an arena, and we want to address that for female athletes and female administrators who are leading in Australia. I chaired the Women in Sport Workforce Roundtable edition facilitated by the Sexual Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, to fit in with the broader Jobs and Skills Summit held recently here at Parliament House. Repeatedly raised with me at this round table was how the infrastructure of sport is still heavily geared towards men, both on and off the field. That is unacceptable for those on this side of the House and, particularly, as we are now on the green-and-gold runway to Brisbane 2032. That's an event that I know you, Mr Speaker, feel very passionate about.

There are too many one-off programs rather than long-lasting systemic reforms in sport. There are too many times when women are punished for daring to excel in sport. Opals star and GOAT, Lauren Jackson, joined our workforce round table and she spoke passionately about how many awful slurs had been directed at her, her teammates, junior players that she helps and female referees. This was not just during her career but to this day.

We must do more to protect them, and we will. We will do more to create sporting infrastructure that treats women with equality. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer leading a national debate on employment and the workforce provides us with an important opportunity to correct a sports gender imbalance as well, and that is now what we are seeking to do. Women bring a diversity of skills and experience, but they continue to be underrepresented in decision-making in sport, and that is now what we on this side of the House are working to change.