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

I thank Senator Tyrrell for the question. It is an important announcement that we made. We know that women retire with between 22 and 30 per cent less superannuation than men at the point of retirement, and we know that women at retirement age are a significant group that fall into poverty. It's part of the fact that, throughout their careers, paid and as family carers—primarily carers in families—they have either had career breaks or been out of the workforce for long periods of time, and during that time when they've not been earning, when they've been caring, they have not been accumulating superannuation. This works in conjunction with the fact that highly feminised industries have traditionally been less valued and lower paid, so some of the work we're doing in aged care and in the care sectors, including in early childhood education and care, goes to that point. It's part of our economic plan. The point I was making in the media release was that this is one part of our response to driving gender equality and better economic equality for women.

Over time, it's not only become an issue of less money in retirement age; it's also become a point of tension about people feeling that the caring role that women primarily play is not valued across the economy. So that decision addressed both of those points. We know it's not a silver bullet for someone retiring tomorrow, but it will make inroads into the superannuation gender pay gap. At the same time as we're doing that, we have to do a whole range of other work in other areas to make sure women are getting a fair crack at super as well. (Time expired)