Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Aged Care. How has the Albanese Labor government's multibillion-dollar investment in pay rises for the aged-care sector helped women in the workforce?

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

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and for her personal commitment to improving the quality of care for older people in her beautiful part of the world. Mr Speaker, 85 per cent of the aged-care work force are women, and for too long these women were undervalued and underappreciated for their highly skilled work because of a prejudicial bias ingrained in our society that some work is worth less simply because of the type of people who are more inclined to do it and that people should be paid more to stack supermarket shelves than to care for older Australians.

The Albanese Labor government made it a priority to offer more than thanks, more than platitudes, more than pats on the back. And we now have, as of today, definitive evidence that our $15.1 billion investment in the female dominated aged-care workforce has made a difference. This morning the Workplace Gender Equality Agency published their latest gender equality scorecard, and it illustrated a confronting 21.1 per cent gender pay gap—a 0.6 per cent reduction from their last survey. However, the gender equality agency said that the main reason for that reduction was the 15 per cent wage increase for residential aged-care workers.

Just yesterday, we heard from HESTA super fund. They are now projecting that aged-care workers will retire with $40,000 more in their superannuation as a result of the Albanese Labor government pay rises. The benefits for aged-care workers come from more than our record wage increases. Labor's tax cuts delivered registered nurses in aged care a $1,679 reduction in their tax, almost double what they would have received under the coalition, helping workers like Rachel, whom I met last week at a mobile office in Zillmere. We did that at Mickey's Cafe—a shout-out to Mickey for his lemon biscuits.

Rachel has been working in aged care for more than seven years. Rachel told me that the Albanese government's pay rise has been transformative. She said that the lack of meaningful wage increases over a decade had left many workers like her at her nursing home driving vehicles well past their used-by dates and needing extensive repairs. It was dangerous. Rachel said that she and many of her colleagues have now bought more reliable vehicles, which they could only afford to do because of this pay rise.

These pay rises are helping our male aged-care workers too. Rachel's colleague Ahmed has been saving for a deposit for a house for eight years. The banks are now considering Ahmed for a home loan because of the pay rise that we were able to deliver for him. This is the value that the Albanese Labor government places on care.