Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator O'Neill, for the question. One of the things that has probably most greatly concerned me over the last few days in response to the budget by those opposite and others has been the lack of understanding of the depth of the measures in this budget that support Australia's women. As a woman in this place, and representing today the Minister for Women, Senator Payne, it is very distressing that we have not seen credit for the massive level of investment that has been made in all Australians over the last seven months, as we have managed our way through the pandemic and, again, on Tuesday night with the measures put in place to help Australia's women. As I said, apart from all of the general measures of which the majority are accessible to women, there are dedicated measures that are specifically targeted towards assisting women in this budget. We've been through them on a number of occasions in this place, but I'm more than happy to stand here again and talk about some of the great initiatives in Tuesday night's budget for women. These are on top of a number of measures that have been announced over the past seven months as Australia has come to terms with a pandemic that has never been experienced in the lifetime of anyone sitting in this chamber.

We on this side will absolutely stand by our record as a government in support of women. I too am happy to stand by my record in the time I've been the minister responsible for families and social services for initiatives we have undertaken to assist Australia's women. The Women's Economic Security Statement is absolutely specifically targeted at making sure we return the level of work participation by Australia's women back to the highest levels and hopefully— (Time expired)