Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Waters for the question. I also acknowledge the work that she's done around gender equality, more broadly, and the advocacy that she has made for many years in this area. In terms of Senator Waters' questions, the focus of the release of this data today has not been to name and shame—to individually single out particular businesses. It's to shine a light.

Today's discussions—the coverage, interest and discussions—we've had today totally endorse the approach we've taken, which is that raising awareness will force the change to happen. Companies will be wanting to know why these gaps exist, what they can do about it and generating the change that needs to happen. That is why we've released these reports to link it to government grants. There are currently arrangements that exist through our procurement processes if companies don't engage with WGEA, to ensure that, over a certain limit, they don't have access to government work. The issue, more broadly, about procurement is something that is performing more generally to look at ways that we can support ethical procurement through our government processes. We are a big purchaser of supplies and services, and it's only right that we should be looking at all aspects of that to make sure that government is showing leadership in this area.

I would just say that the purpose of today, the work that Ms Wooldridge and her formidable team have done at WGEA, is not about naming and shaming. It's about driving change in a faster way than we've seen and encouraging businesses to understand what their current operations are and how to improve them.