Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One trillion dollars in debt and nothing for women over the age of 35.In the Morrison government's budget, women are being left out and left behind. Day after day, we see new evidence of the disproportionate impact COVID-19 is having on Australian women, but in response the Morrison government has failed. Women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, taking on two-thirds of the unpaid care work at home. Even before the pandemic hit, a significant number of JobSeeker recipients were middle-aged women. In August, there were 754,100 women receiving JobSeeker. Of those, 61 per cent were over 35. The same research revealed a huge increase in the number of women in their 40s, 50s and 60s relying on unemployment benefits for years. A third of women aged at least 55 have been on unemployment support for at least five years. There are 460,000 women aged over 35 years who are without work and who face a future of living on $40 a day. They have been excluded from the Morrison government's hiring credits scheme and will need to compete against younger, subsidised jobseekers. So if you're a woman in your 40s who's been on JobKeeper during this recession, had your hours reduced, work in hospitality or retail and, come March or April, you lose your job, what is in the budget for you? Nothing. The Morrison government excluded many women from JobKeeper. The Morrison government only provided JobKeeper for two-thirds of early educators and then ripped JobKeeper from the sector before any other profession. Ninety-six per cent of early educators are women working on the front line of the COVID-19 crisis.

What about First Nations women? Let's have a look at their story. There's no additional education funding for young First Nations women. The Clontarf Foundation funding supports the education of young First Nations men only. There was no additional health or legal services for First Nations women, no new money for further frontline domestic violence services, including no additional emergency and social housing to meet increased demand due to COVID-19, and no COVID-19 recovery support for unemployed Indigenous women over 35 years of age to regain employment.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates that of the 64,644 First Nations people who sought specialist help for homelessness back in 2016-17, 61 per cent were women. First Nations women comprise 34 per cent of all female prisoners compared to two per cent of the overall Australian population. Although the majority of people in prison are male—97 per cent—First Nations women are the most rapidly-growing population of prisoners, with rates increasing by 150 per cent since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody—twice the rate of other females and double the rate of First Nations males from 2000 to 2016. These women have often experienced poverty, grief and loss, domestic violence, racism and poor mental health.

Senator Ruston noted the Women's Economic Security Statement contained $240 million in specific initiatives for women. Despite the $1.1 trillion of debt, the Prime Minister's women's economic statement contains just $240 million for 51 per cent of the population. This is a pittance compared to multibillion-dollar commitments directed to various male-dominated industries.

The 2020 budget contains nothing to address the significant job losses in industries dominated by women, yet women have represented more than 50 per cent of job losses during the coronavirus-led economic downturn. There's no new funding for frontline domestic and family violence services that support women and their children escaping violence, nothing new to address the gender pay gap, nothing on superannuation and women's economic security in retirement, nothing on child care, nothing on social housing and no plan for women in Australia.

Question agreed to.