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

I rise to take note of questions and answers, particularly the questions asked by Senator Dean Smith and answers given by Minister Gallagher. Our government's top priority when it comes to our economic plan is fighting inflation and reducing inflation, and our budget is doing exactly that. Our budget, which I note those on the opposition benches have had very little to say about in recent weeks, has been absolutely responsible when it comes to the inflation challenge. We are focusing on restraint, as we should be in the current environment, and we're also focused on relief for people who we know are doing it tough because of the cost-of-living challenges people are facing today. That's why our budget returned over 90 per cent of enhanced revenues to the budget bottom line. It's why we did the hard yards in the budget, finding over $20 billion in savings. It's why we've exercised restraint in our new program spending and limited that over the forward estimates to $10 billion.

We have been absolutely responsible, in our economic planning, in targeting our spending to those who need relief the most. That is absolutely what we should be doing in this inflationary environment. We have targeted it to those on JobSeeker, to those on single parenting payments, to those who need rent assistance, to those who will benefit from cheaper medicines and to those who will benefit from our tripling of the bulk-billing incentive. This is all part of our commitment to a strong and resilient economy.

We are dealing with the inflation challenge. We are dealing with it head on, and we are rebuilding a strong economy after a decade of neglect by those opposite—in particular, after a decade of neglect from those opposite on recognising the important role of women in the economy. One of the distinctive features of our government's agenda and our economic plan is that we have absolutely put women at the heart of it. We see women as critical economic actors in our country and in our country's future. Whether it's funding a pay rise for our lowest-paid female dominated industries, like aged care, or passing legislation to address the gender pay gap, as Minister Gallagher has led the way on and spoken about today, or expanding paid parental leave, investing in quality early childhood education and care, implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, legislating a better bargaining system to allow secure jobs and better pay, establishing 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave—all these changes are absolutely critical in opening up participation for women in the workforce.

I was incredibly proud to see recent data that showed that women's workforce participation is at an all-time high of 62.7 per cent. Over 200,000 women have entered the workforce since we were elected, and women make up two-thirds of full-time jobs created in the past 12 months. These statistics are no coincidence; they are a result of our work removing the barriers that hold back women's participation in the workforce.

Jobs have grown to an all-time high since we took government. The number of jobs that have been created in just our first year of government is 465,000. That is a record for any government and is in fact six times how many jobs were created in the first year of the coalition government. Wages are moving at a faster rate than they have in more than a decade; and yesterday new data was released that showed almost 76,000 jobs were created in May. More Australians are in work than ever before. When we came to government, unemployment was at 3.9 per cent. It has dropped to 3.6 per cent and has remained at record lows over the past year. We're investing in jobs; we're investing in women in the economy and that is paying dividends.