Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2009 we celebrate the 25th anniversary—the silver jubilee—of the federal Sex Discrimination Act. In acknowledgement of that milestone I would like to speak today about progress women have made in the ongoing quest for equality in the workplace and about the importance of some organisations that are working to help women achieve the elusive goal of true equality. Those organisations are the Working Women’s Centre of South Australia, which this year celebrates 30 years of existence, and the union movement, especially the Australian Services Union, of which I am, proudly, a member.

Looking back over the last three decades, a lot has changed for women in the workplace. There has been progress in a variety of areas such as women’s pay, labour force participation, the availability of flexible working conditions, access to quality child care, access to legal and financial rights and women’s access to education. Indicators over the years have shown that, slowly but surely, women are increasing their presence at all levels in the workplace; however, sometimes progress is actually one step forward and two steps backwards or is painfully slow.

Statistically speaking, women are participating in the workforce at higher rates than they were three decades ago. Statistics show that in 1979 just 35.5 per cent of the labour force was women. Today, that number has risen 10 per cent and this year, in 2009, women make up some 45.5 per cent of the labour force. In addition to the increasing numbers in workforce participation, women are steadily increasing their presence in professional and managerial positions. In 1981, statistics showed that only 1.9 per cent of females were employed in managerial or executive positions, compared to 7.4 per cent of males being employed in these areas. Statistics from 2006, however, show an increase of eight per cent, with 9.9 per cent of females employed in some kind of managerial role.

However, we are still playing catch-up to the men, as 16.1 per cent of males are now employed in managerial roles. Although the number of individual women serving on ASX 200 boards has increased since the 1981 census, the growth rate over the 25-year period to 2006 has been so marginal that without significant improvement women will remain substantially under-represented on boards of our major companies for decades. This is most definitely not due to a lack of talent or skills. The evidence shows that once women have been appointed to boards they are as influential as men, with almost half of the individual women holding ASX 200 board seats chairing at least one board committee. Half of Australia’s companies, however, have no women at all on their boards, and only six per cent of senior management is made up of women. Significantly, and disappointingly, only one in 14 of ASX 200 executives considered to be key management personnel are women.

I am pleased to note that the federal government has already lifted the number of female chief executive officers in the Australian public sector, with five female APS departmental secretaries, but we still have a long way to go. It is very disheartening to see that currently in local government fewer than 30 per cent of councillors and only seven per cent of council CEOs are women.

Women are, however, excelling in education. Across our society, more women than men are graduating from university. Statistics show that more young women are in education and training now than ever previously. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2004 the completion rates for male and female students in remote areas were 47 per cent and 63 per cent respectively. In comparison, the completion rates were considerably higher for male students—65 per cent—and female students—75 per cent—living in metropolitan areas. In 2000, women made up 59 per cent of those completing a bachelor’s degree and 51 per cent of those completing postgraduate studies. An Australian Council for Educational Research study indicates that of those completing award courses in engineering and surveying 15 per cent were women, while, in contrast, women made up 70 per cent of those completing award courses in arts, humanities and social sciences.

Women are increasingly doing well in education and moving towards achieving parity with men in participation in the workforce—although painfully slowly at the managerial levels. There is, however, still a long way to go when it comes to wage parity. Research shows that male graduates are commencing employment on a median salary of $45,000, while female graduates are starting work on roughly $3,000 per year less. On average, women earn 17 per cent less than men, and the average hourly gender pay gap was 13.1 per cent in May this year.

While women may be firmly established in the workforce, females do not have effective equal pay with males. While there is legislation across Australia meant to deliver equality—and some of it has been in place for nearly 40 years—women are still, on average, earning less than our male counterparts. That pay inequity continues to reduce women’s economic security, with figures showing that women earn 83 cents for every dollar that men earn and that in Australia men take home $162 more per week than women. Time and time again we see a link between male domination in the well-paid sectors of the workforce and low pay rates in the female dominated sectors. The 2006 ABS stats showed that the full-time wage gap had increased to 10 per cent. Not since 1978 has there been such a disparity between men’s and women’s pay for equal work.

The pay gap is costly not just to women and their families but also to business and our community. The compounding effect of pay inequality means that women are 2½ times more likely to live in poverty in their old age than men. By 2019, on average, women will have half the amount of superannuation that men have. The leave that women take throughout their working lives to look after the nation’s children has an effect on women’s income levels, appointment to new jobs, any likelihood of promotion and, of course, their levels of superannuation.

I am pleased to say that the government’s 2009-10 budget announcement to introduce paid parental leave to help families find a better balance between paid work and caring responsibilities is a first step to addressing the inequality caused by the twin roles of carer and worker that most women now manage. It will also allow mothers to remain connected to the labour market and support men to share in raising and caring for children—a critical step to progressing equality between men and women.

Research by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has found that over a 40-year period women will earn $1.5 million, yet men will earn over 1½ times more over the same period—$2.4 million. Poor economic outcomes in mid-life are only exacerbated in later life, with older women presently making up 60 per cent of those reliant on the age pension.

Fortunately, we have organisations dedicated to assisting women to achieve equality in the workplace. The South Australian Working Women’s Centre recently celebrated their 30th birthday and I was pleased to attend the celebrations . For three decades, South Australian women have had an organisation to which they can turn when they need information, support, advice or advocacy for work related issues. The centre is partly funded by both state and federal governments and has an essential role not only in supporting individual women at work but also as a tireless advocate for a better deal for all women at work, particularly for women in low-paid occupations whose skills are not recognised in wage and entitlement outcomes and women who may not be in a position to bargain with the assistance of unions or are in workplaces not represented by unions.

The Working Women’s Centre deserves every accolade it receives, and more importantly it deserves the ongoing financial support it has received from state and federal governments of all political persuasions. While many women have managed to achieve high office and good pay and have significant influence in the workforce, many have not. I am pleased to say that the federal government is another organisation committed to boosting and supporting women’s leadership in the public sector, in business and in the broader community, and it is implementing a range of measures to ensure more women manage to achieve high office, good pay and significant influence. As a reforming Labor government, we are determined to see some real changes incorporated into the workplace and to see advances made in closing the gender pay gap.

The new Fair Work Act will assist in that battle against ongoing inequality for women in the workplace. In the act, the government has widened the test used in the equal remuneration provisions to include the right to equal pay for work of comparable value, as well as equal value, reflecting the approach already taken in some states and territories. I was extremely pleased to learn that the first federal test case under the new act on pay equity will be in the area of social and community services. An agreement has been struck between the Australian Services Union and the government for the union to pursue a pay equity case for workers in the vital but undervalued and underpaid sector of community services.

The union movement has a proud history of pursuing better wage and entitlements outcomes for women workers. The first maternity leave and pay equity test cases were initiated, prosecuted and fought by unions. The new Australian Services Union pay equity case builds on a successful case prosecuted by the ASU in Queensland for social and community services workers in that state. As Ms Linda White, the Assistant National Secretary of the ASU, said about the landmark federal pay equity case:

The case will seek pay rises based on pay equity and work value to support retention of staff and address a chronic skills shortage in the sector by delivering substantial wage rises for the predominately female workforce - 87% of SACS workers are women.

I am sure we will all watch with much interest the progress of that important landmark case, and I offer my congratulations to all concerned.

As well as the paid parental leave measures in the budget, the federal government also announced other good news for women, including workforce participation requirements for single parents receiving the parenting payment that will provide parents with more flexible opportunities to gain skills and qualifications. We are investing $12.8 billion over the next four years in the availability of quality and affordable child care. The government is also providing $120.5 million to improve choice and access to maternity services for pregnant women and new mothers.

The government has also been making significant progress on the development of a national plan to reduce violence against women. As we know, women who are victims of domestic violence experience significant difficulties in continuing to work or continuing to participate meaningfully in the workforce, in education or in training. The government initiatives that I have outlined will improve gender equality across a wide range of indicators, not just in employment but also in women’s economic, health and safety outcomes.

As well as the increasing numbers of women in the workforce, there have also been a number of significant milestones over the past 30 years. Recently—in fact during the term of the Rudd Labor government—we have seen the Hon. Julia Gillard become Australia’s first ever female Deputy Prime Minister. We all welcome the appointment of Her Excellency Quentin Bryce as Australia’s first female Governor-General after a succession of 24 men. I also note the election of the Hon. Anna Bligh as the Premier of Queensland made her the first woman in Australian history to be directly elected to the position of state premier.

While we have made progress over the last three decades for women in the workplace, there are still major discrepancies between the genders and women are clearly nowhere near equal to men quite yet. In our own workplace there are 226 members and senators and 67 of them are women—that is, less than 30 per cent. As a nation we have much more to do to secure true equality for women in all workplaces. While we celebrate 25 years of the Sex Discrimination Act and 30 years of the South Australian Working Women’s Centre, let us hope it does not take another 25 or 30 years for us to achieve real equality for women at work.