Senate debates

Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Statements by Senators

Morrison Government

12:47 pm

Photo of Jess WalshJess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's been said that the Morrison government has a women problem, but I think it's more accurate to say that the women of Australia have a Morrison government problem. As we near the end of 2021 and edge closer to the next election, the women of Australia are asking themselves this: What have the Morrison government done for us? What positive change have they made to the lives of Australian women? What have they done to improve the jobs of Australian women? What have they done to fight the insecurity that Australian women still face today? The answer is: not nearly enough.

This government's track record when it comes to women is absolutely abysmal. Under this government, women have been neglected, disrespected and undervalued. Australian women have been neglected in the postpandemic recovery, and women's economic security is going backwards. Despite women being the hardest hit by the COVID pandemic, there is no plan to support women's jobs or women's wages, going forward. Throughout the pandemic, women have experienced higher levels of job loss and lost hours than men. Almost 30,000 more women than men have left the jobs market during the most recent lockdowns, because women are more likely to be employed in insecure, part-time work and because women are the majority in the industries that were hardest hit during COVID—industries like hospitality, tourism and the arts.

At the other end of the spectrum, in sectors like nursing, early childhood education and aged care, essential women workers have been completely neglected by this government. These are the women who kept our essential services running, day in, day out, despite facing personal risk themselves, and for these women there was no relief on the home front. Added to the already high levels of unpaid work was the challenge of home schooling. Millions of women across the country shared in the daily struggle to balance everything—working from home, increased housework, hours of home schooling and the seemingly never-ending sourcing of snacks for bored and hungry children. It left the women of Australia exhausted and burnt out. It has also left many women poorer, because to cope with the extra workload many Australian women reduced their hours or left the workforce altogether, and many of these women are not guaranteed to get these hours back as lockdowns ease. This reduction in income from lost jobs and reduced hours saw women forced to withdraw from their super accounts like never before to survive, super accounts which were already on average half the size of men's.

The Morrison government has no idea what the women of Australia have contributed during this pandemic. The Prime Minister simply doesn't see it. As a result, the Morrison government has no plan for women in the economic recovery going forward. So, without a plan, women will see long fought for gains in equality go backwards—insecure work will get worse, the retirement savings gap is set to get worse and their earnings will go backwards. The women of Australia simply cannot afford a Morrison government.

Australian women are sick of being disrespected by this government, as was demonstrated by the 100,000 women who marched outside parliament demanding that the government listen. But what was the Prime Minister's response to this public display of anger and frustration? He said that the protesters should be grateful because 'Not far from here, such marches, even now are being met with bullets'. The women of Australia however did not feel grateful. They felt angry, and they felt angry when it took this government 15 months to respond to the groundbreaking Respect@Work report. They felt angry when the government legislated only six of the 55 recommendations of that report, and they felt angry when the government voted against employers having to take active measures to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. These are all actions which would have shown that this government had some basic respect for the women of Australia, actions which would have shown that they listened, which would have shown that they were taking real action to ensure women are safe at work. But, really, what can we expect? This is, after all, a government where former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, not globally renowned for his respect for women, appointed himself the Minister for Women. This is a government led by a prime minister who defended the now fully disgraced Minister Christian Porter, a prime minister who was accused of victim blaming by sexual assault survivor Brittany Higgins, a prime minister who has told us all that he can only relate to women as the 'father of daughters'. The women of Australia deserve to be respected, not dismissed by their Prime Minister and by their government.

Women have long been undervalued for their essential work, and it's never been clearer under this government. At the same time as women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID, they were at the front lines delivering our essential services. And how has the Morrison government valued these essential workers? Let's look at the early childhood educators. Let's look at the aged-care workers.

This year the government stood up and declared a pink budget, pointing to announcements in aged care and child care, but how much of this is actually flowing to the pockets of the hundreds of thousands of women who work in these critical, essential sectors? Nothing. The government has refused to do anything meaningful to value the work of these professionals. They have refused to support the aged-care work value case that's running in the Fair Work Commission, despite the Fair Work Commissioner asking them to. We know that the wages for aged-care workers are just not enough to live on. We have heard time and time again from aged-care workers, like Cathy who came to the Senate Select Committee on Job Security and said the following: 'Who cares for the care worker? We're the working poor and have to retire below the poverty line. We look after your parents. Remember, we're the second last stop for your loved ones.' So who cares for the care workers? Well, not the Morrison government and certainly not the same Prime Minister who praised early educators as essential one day and then kicked them off JobKeeper the next, when early childhood educators were still seeing their hours cut because of enrolments being reduced, when early childhood educators were needed to ensure that other essential workers could go to work, all while working in an environment where it was impossible to socially distance, at the height of the pandemic.

The Morrison government has never valued the essential care sectors, which are dominated by women. After all, this is a government whose own members reportedly described early learning as 'outsourced parenting'. This is a government whose own members say that women should do this care work for love and not for a living wage. But these are two of the fastest-growing sectors of the Australian economy, sectors which between them employ around 500,000 workers, sectors which are facing workforce shortages of tens of thousands of workers, driven by low pay and lack of respect. I have heard from educators and aged-care workers, as recently as last week, who are thinking of leaving the jobs that they love simply because they can't afford to stay in them. So what is this government prepared to do about that? It seems, after eight long years, that the answer is absolutely nothing.

This is a government which continually disrespects women and their invaluable contribution to our economy and our community. Australian women contribute so much to this country, but their own government continues to neglect them. Their own government continues to disrespect them. Their own government continues to undervalue them and the work that they do. This government will never stand up for women, ever. This government never has stood up for women, ever. The women of Australia have made their judgement, and they have found this government wanting.

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