Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Women. How will the Albanese Labor government's workplace relation reform support women and drive gender equality?

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

I thank the member for Reid for her question. She is one of the 57 women in the Labor caucus and has a powerful back story that makes me proud and her family proud and should make us all proud.

This is an important issue, with crucial social and economic implications. The Albanese Labor government is deeply committed to advancing gender equality, and I am proud to be part of a team where 52 per cent of Labor members and senators are women and 10 members of cabinet are women—the most ever. Our reforms through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill will take long overdue steps to address the gender pay gap, get wages moving and support secure work for women as well as safety in the workplace. In 2022, none of these things should be beyond us as a nation.

This bill puts women at the heart of the Fair Work system by setting clear expectations that the Fair Work Commission must consider gender equality in performing all of its functions, such as setting the minimum wage, considering changes to awards and other matters. We are establishing a pay equity expert panel and a care and community sector expert panel in the Fair Work Commission, supported by a dedicated research unit. The bill will support improved wages and conditions for early childhood education workers, cleaners, community service workers and others in highly feminised sectors.

This bill will also address the significant hurdles in the Fair Work Act. These hurdles often stand in the way of women in underpaid and undervalued industries obtaining equal remuneration. Our reforms will improve pay transparency and strengthen access to flexible working arrangements so that families can better share and manage their caring responsibilities.

Where the previous government refused to act, this bill will prohibit sexual harassment under the Fair Work Act, a recommendation of the Respect@Work report. I want to pay tribute, as the Prime Minister did earlier today, to the brave actions of the many women who brought this into the light.

These reforms are just one aspect of this government's ambition for Australia to be a leader on gender equality and our commitment to support women's economic equality and safety in the workplace.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right will cease interjecting all at once. I am going to invite the member for Hume to be heard in silence while he asks a question.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In response to a question on Insiders on 21 November last year, the Treasurer said industry-wide bargaining was 'not part of our policy'. Did the Treasurer mishear that question or does he have a different excuse for this broken promise?

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Hume was heard in silence. The Treasurer will also be heard in silence.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We've waited 19 days for that rubbish question from the member for Hume. Did you know, Mr Speaker, that Dolly Parton wrote 'Jolene' and 'I will always love you' in one day? It took the shadow Treasurer 19 days to write that question—19 days longer than it took to write two of the most popular songs in history.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I invite the Treasurer to return to the question.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker—

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my left! The Treasurer will return to the question.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question that the shadow Treasurer asks me, which Dennis Shanahan wrote two or three weeks ago, is based on a completely wrong premise. And it comes as a surprise to nobody on this side of the House that the shadow Treasurer has again got it hopelessly wrong. Let me explain it to the shadow Treasurer. It was not our policy then, and it is not our policy now, to have industry-wide bargaining. There are important differences between the question I was asked last year and our policy now, as outlined by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Prime Minister and others. After industrial relations being such a central part of the political debate in this country for some time, the shadow Treasurer really ought to know the difference between the two concepts. So I say once again for the shadow Treasurer: it is not our policy now to have industry-wide bargaining; it was not our policy to have industry-wide bargaining when David Speers asked me in 2021.

I'll tell you what is our policy, Mr Speaker. It is our policy to get wages moving again in this country. And that's why I'm so pleased and why I congratulate the industrial relations minister, the Prime Minister, the colleagues in the Senate, Senator Pocock—and I thank him for his support—because for too long in this country wages have been stagnant. One of the reasons why we're on this side of the House and you're on that side of the House is that we take a very different approach to wages than you do. Nothing would make them happier than another decade of wage stagnation like the last decade, Mr Speaker, but we take a different approach. They get sent to this place to diminish and hack at the wages and working conditions of working Australians; we come here to get wages moving again. We're proud to do so, and that's what our policy is all about.