Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, which is part of how the Albanese Labor government is working to close the gender pay gap. It charges employers with greater responsibility and accountability towards gender equality in their workforces and helps to drive the actions required to bring about higher levels of gender equality in our country. You see, women on average have 23.4 per cent less super when they come to retirement age than men. They are overrepresented in industries with lower wages and underrepresented in positions of leadership. This inequality doesn't just impact women. It restrains the entire economy. The gender pay gap alone represents a cost of $51.8 billion a year.

In 2021, the Workplace Gender Equality Act was reviewed, and 10 recommendations were made that would help Australia accelerate our progress towards workplace gender equality as well as make reporting easier for employers. This bill, together with the remade instruments under the act, fulfils almost all the recommendations of the review requiring legislative amendment. It also fulfils a key election promise to close the gender pay gap, including by boosting pay gap transparency and encouraging action to close gender pay gaps within an organisation. This bill will drive employer action, transparency and accountability to help us progress towards gender equality in the workplace. This bill will achieve this by allowing the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to report gender pay gaps at the employer level. Currently, the approach is to publish aggregate industry gender pay gaps, and this does not create transparency or accountability required to close the gap. Publishing employer gender pay gaps encourages employers to address the causes of the pay gaps internally, and it also encourages individuals to take action to change the workplace.

Alongside this bill, the remade instruments will streamline aspects of existing reporting, reducing regulatory burdens and freeing businesses up to focus on their efforts on gender equality action. This bill will align the act with the Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2013 (No. 1) by including sexual harassment, harassment on the ground of sex, and discrimination as gender equality indicators in the act. This does not change reporting obligations but, rather, recognises the importance of these core gender equality indicators. The bill goes on to reflect the increased ambitions of all these measures to improve gender equality and outcomes for both men and women in the workplace by amending the act to rename 'minimum standards' as 'gender equality standards'. It is the first step, but there is much more this government wants to do to improve workplace gender equality.

While closing the gender pay gap is a major commitment and priority of this Albanese government, it is also an important issue to me personally. Before I was elected to this place, I was an organiser at United Workers Union. That union covers a range of different industries which are highly feminised and highly diverse and where the workers are often overworked and underpaid. From cleaners to aged-care workers to early childhood educators, these industries are majority women and are absolutely essential for the wellbeing of Australians. My time at the union, hearing many tragic and devastating stories of women trying to make ends meet, ignited the desire in me to become involved in politics. It pulled me to join the fight for these workers, because something needed to change. The Australian people voted in a responsible, mature and compassionate government and, in the process, elected me as a senator for Western Australia.

My constituents in the west know that I take my responsibility to stand up for workers and women very seriously. Gender equality is important for all Western Australians, and there is clear evidence that increasing participation of women in the workforce brings economic and social benefits to everyone. This bill represents a critical piece in Labor's commitment to gender equality, which will benefit all Australians and help us achieve the goal of being one of the best countries in the world for equality between men and women.