Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

When Prime Minister Morrison spoke at the memorial service for Bob Hawke last month, he described the unique relationship Mr Hawke had with the Australian people, 'a nation that Bob Hawke loved and that deeply loved him in return'. Australia's First Nations people held a special place in Bob Hawke's heart, so I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and their elders past, present and emerging.

The Hon. Robert James Lee Hawke AC, Bob, will be remembered for a raft of reasons, well recounted here today and in recent weeks: floating the dollar; opening the economy to global markets; the Accord and its consensus approach to industrial relations; Medicare; banning uranium mining in Jabiluka; the listing of Kakadu National Park on the World Heritage List; and Landcare, just to name a few from the extensive legacy left by the Hawke government, a government that changed the nation for the better.

Prior to the election of the Hawke government, the World Heritage Committee had also listed the Franklin River in Tasmania as a World Heritage site. On coming to power on 5 March 1983, Hawke's government passed the new conservation act and, at the end of the Tasmanian state government's challenge, on 1 July 1983, the High Court ruled that, 'There shall be no dam on the Franklin River'. That legacy not only lives on in the physical preservation of that natural wonder but directly led to the ongoing protections of our nation's natural assets through federal powers, not least the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Bob Hawke was also the first Australian Prime Minister to recognise and call for action to combat what we now refer to as climate change.

Today I wish to remember another legacy of the Hawke government: tackling gender discrimination in the workplace. Bob was a fierce opponent of discrimination in all its forms. In 1969, as an advocate for the ACTU, Bob Hawke successfully argued for equal pay for equal work. With Bob at the helm, the ACTU continued in its advocacy for equal pay, despite the opposition from the McMahon government. Fortunately for the working women of Australia, Hawke's advocacy was matched by the Whitlam government's commitment to equal pay. Hawke's leadership drove the historic 'equal pay for work of equal value' ruling, meaning that, finally, women and men had to be paid the same amount for doing the same job.

The Hawke-led ACTU also successfully advocated for the minimum wage to be extended to women. It seems extraordinary, when you stop and think about it, that, as recently as 1972, women in Australia were not automatically entitled to be paid the same minimum wage and could be paid less than men for doing the same job. Hawke's leadership, combined with a remarkable team at the ACTU and the political leadership of the Whitlam government, meant that the working women of Australia were finally equal to men.

Upon entering politics, Hawke continued his commitment to and advocacy for equality. Following the 1983 election, Bob Hawke appointed Susan Ryan to the portfolio of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. He also appointed Anne Summers to head the Office of the Status of Women within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Hawke's commitment, along with these two key appointments, ensured that progress in the fight against discrimination was rapid. The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 outlawed sex discrimination and protected women from harassment in the workplace. It was introduced to the parliament by Susan Ryan and it passed, despite strident opposition from some. Both then Senator Ryan and Mr Hawke then drove the passage of the Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986. The act was superseded by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 and, currently, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

As with so many reforms that tackle discrimination and disadvantage legislatively, the lineage starts with Bob Hawke in 1984. In 2019, 35 years later, the divide in opinion caused by the proposal of such legislation is interesting to revisit. The sky would fall in and civilisation would end, apparently. The arguments against the bill included:

… the legislation as a whole is tainted with the pseudo-intellectualism of selfish and unrepresentative feminism and doctrinaire marxist-socialist precepts of contrived equality—defying even the laws of nature.

I quote again:

Men, by nature, are more likely to be leaders, providers and protectors. We can legislate all we like, but we will not change that.

I quote again:

I started to do my research on this Women's Electoral Lobby … They are all women who had had problems, et cetera. They were women who had something against men.

…   …   …

I have looked at the four women on the Government side. They are nice ladies. I have nothing against them, I have talked to them. We talk to each other. But they are all the same. They are always campaigning to save the cats, save the dogs and save the whales … I do not mean that nastily … But the majority of Liberal women are quiet and do not say very much.

Well, we know that's changed now, thankfully!