Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I attended the Parliamentary Friends of Women and Work. We often speak in this place about how the fastest-growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness is women over 55. Women turn up at the doors of the homelessness shelter as a result of a perfect storm of gender disadvantage over their lifetime. They earn less than their male counterparts right out of school or university, and the gender pay gap persists for their lifetime. Feminised industries are often the least paid, with insecure work conditions and limited opportunities for career progression. Parental leave and caring duties cut into earnings and superannuation. A relationship breakdown may leave a woman as a single parent, and, when violence or coercive control is involved, women may find that they have exchanged physical abuse for financial abuse by the child support system. Angela told us this morning of bringing up her beloved children in poverty and challenged us with the words, 'When do I have to give up my children?'

This government is making great strides: the Women's Budget Statement, cheaper child care, paid domestic violence leave, paid parental leave, pay rises for aged-care and childcare workers, and an increased minimum wage. But we in this place all need to keep going. Women are 52 per cent of the population. This is not a minority issue. This is not even a women's issue. It is a human rights issue. I'd like to thank my co-chairs: Senator Larissa Waters and the member for North Sydney.