Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll just rebut a few of those comments from Senator Sheldon. One of the reasons why there are so many jobs is that people have to work two or three jobs at the moment to keep up with the cost of living. I should also point out that, when you look at wage growth, you've got to look at net wage growth, not the gross wage growth figure. The fact of the matter is that wage growth is not keeping up with inflation, and I will contrast that with the Morrison era when wage growth exceeded inflation.

But I want to talk about the events of this week in terms of what has been disclosed in this chamber. There have been a lot of misleading statements, but I want to reflect on an answer that was given on 15 February 2021 by my Senate colleague Senator Reynolds when she was asked about what happened with the Higgins affair. She said:

Women should be safe and they should feel safe in the workplace at all times. My only priority throughout this matter was the welfare of my then staff member and ensuring that she received the support that she needed. That included ensuring that she was clear about the support available to her, and her right to make a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police should she choose to do so. At all times, my then chief of staff and I ensured that we sought advice from and we followed advice from ministerial and parliamentary services regarding the support available. I was at pains to ensure that my staff member felt empowered to determine how she wanted to handle the matter, and that remains the case.

All I can say is, had that answer been taken—I'm replying here to Minister Gallagher's comments earlier today about protecting the women—at face value way back on 15 February 2021, a lot of pain and misery could have been avoided. Instead, what we had was a relentless attack on Senator Reynolds for the next 10 days, eight days of which were estimates. I felt she was bullied. If anyone should be proud of how she's conducted herself, it is Senator Reynolds. I stand here in support of her today. I actually apologised to her, because I felt many times throughout that two weeks I should have stood up and called a point of order. I didn't. Take a bow, Senator Reynolds, because I think, if anyone tried to protect people in all of that, it was actually you.

We should never have had a trial by media or a trial by chamber. The whole thing is a tawdry affair that should never have been allowed to happen, and I hope that everyone can move on from this and look at treating each other with respect, especially here in this chamber.

The other thing I think is worth pointing out with regard to the payout is that I was contacted yesterday by someone who works with alleged sexual victim cases in the Defence Force. Since 1 December 2016 there have been 4,407 reports of abuse in the Defence Force. The ombudsman can take up to 18 months to even consider whether or not to refer a case to the Defence Force, and it can take another 18 months, if not longer, for that issue to be resolved. If Ms Higgins can be paid out in a very short period of time, the question that needs to be asked is: why can't these other payments be paid out in a very short period of time as well?

The other thing I just want to touch on is Senator Pratt's comments about superannuation helping women. That's actually not true at all. The average superannuation balance for women is about 60 per cent of the average superannuation balance for men, and that's because, for obvious reasons, women don't work in the workforce as long as men, in many cases, because they take time off to have children. That is why I've always felt that a fairly indexed pension is a much more equitable way of looking after women in retirement, rather than superannuation, which is geared towards helping the wealthy. We know there's $50 billion in tax concessions for superannuation, the bulk of which goes to the wealthiest 25 per cent. They're the people who don't need the pension; they're the people who already aren't on the pension. Superannuation does nothing for equality for women. If anything, I think it makes inequality worse. I will finish my remarks at that.