Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is an extraordinary strawman that the Labor Party continues to put forward. I guess we should be used to it at this point.

Senator O'Neill interjecting—

Senator O'Neill, we should be used to it at this point. In the face of an unprecedented economic and health crisis, we've seen from this government a comprehensive response across the economy. What we get from the Labor Party is the usual politics of identity, politics of division. They cherrypick some information. They spin it in a particular way. They choose their dataset very carefully. They ignore the overall economy. They ignore the comprehensive measures that this government has put in place to underpin our economy, to underpin economic growth, to get the economy moving again, to get Australians back in work, to get all Australians back participating in the workforce, to get small business back up and running, to protect our families, to give people a chance to be the best they can possibly be. We get this politics of identity, this cherrypicking of information.

Absolutely, I will knowledge that the ABS stats show that women in the workforce were impacted very, very hard by the crisis that confronts this government. But does the Labor Party ever raise the fact that the latest ABS stats also show that jobs for women recovered at 1.4 per cent whereas jobs for men only recovered at 0.4 per cent. Do you ever talk about the identity politics of that? Of course you don't, because it doesn't fit into your narrative. It doesn't fit into this politics of identity that you are seeking to continually drive. Senator Seselja rightly pointed out that almost 900,000 jobs were created for women by this government in the six years before the coronavirus impacted our economy so remarkably and with such great venom.

This government has a strong and proud record of supporting women's participation in the labour market. Prior to COVID-19, the March 2020 labour force figures showed near record high employment of women in the economy—almost 6.2 million women employed in the Australian economy. The labour participation rate for women is at an almost record high of 61.3 per cent, 2½ percentage points higher than when the coalition took office in September 2013. From September 2013 until just prior to COVID-19 impacting our economy, almost 900,000 jobs were created for women. Does the Labor Party ever quote these sorts of statistics? Of course they don't. They're too busy playing the politics of identity, the politics of division, and cherrypicking information to suit their particular narrative.

The latest Labour Force Survey figures show that seasonally adjusted employment for women fell by 325,000. Of course, this is the impact of the COVID crisis. This is an impact across the economy that this government is only too well aware of and is seeking to comprehensively address. Let me give you one more example. Today Minister Birmingham talked about the need to open our borders to get the tourism and hospitality sector up and running again. That will disproportionately impact, in the positive, women—because women are a greater percentage of the workforce in that particular sector. Does that factor into Labor's narrative? Did they come out in support of Minister Birmingham? Did they jump up and down and congratulate him for his words at The Press Club? Of course not—because, again, it doesn't fit into their narrow world view. We want to get the whole Australian economy—we want to support all Australian working families—out of this economic and health crisis and get the economy back up and running again as quickly as we possibly can.