Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Senator Evans. Can the minister outline to the Senate today's announcement by the Prime Minister to address the pay equity gap in the community sector?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Moore. I know she has had a keen interest in this issue for many years. The government are serious about achieving equal pay for women, and today we made a major step in our bid to close the longstanding pay gap between men and women. In their work as counsellors, as social workers and as legal aid officers, social and community service workers make a difference every day and they deserve proper reward for their efforts.

The Prime Minster today announced that the Gillard government will help make equal pay a reality for community sector workers by making a joint submission to Fair Work Australia with the Australian Services Union in the current social and community sector equal-pay case. This means that together we will argue for rates of pay which fairly and properly value social and community sector work. Other unions who are applicants in the case will join with us—and we expect major providers will do the same—to support this argument before Fair Work Australia's full bench. If through its own independent processes the full bench agrees to the solution we propose, then community sector workers covered by this case will be paid new, fair pay rates based on the evidence of gender pay imbalance given in the case. When fully implemented this should deliver pay rates comparable to those awarded by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in its landmark 2009 case. The government will propose that pay increases start on 1 December next year and be gradually phased in over six years. This commitment comes at a cost to the federal budget of over $2 billion over the full phase-in period, but this will help deliver a historic pay rise to 150,000 of Australia's lowest paid workers, including 120,000 women working in difficult jobs often described as 'caring jobs'. This is a historic measure that seeks to address the serious imbalance for those women in caring professions.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can you explain why support from state and territory governments is important to progress equal pay in this sector?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be remiss of me if I did not recognise the huge amount of work that Senator Collins has put into the government's work in this regard, and I congratulate her and thank her for that. It is true that the funding arrangements in this sector are incredibly complex. The Commonwealth does not actually employ anyone directly covered by the claim, and the funding is provided by the private and not-for-profit providers as well as Commonwealth, state and territory governments. That means that all of us are going to have to contribute to pay our share to fund these pay increases if successfully awarded. We have come up with our $2 billion to make it happen, and obviously state and territory governments are going to have to come on board as well. But I know many of them have already made commitments. I have spoken to many of the premiers and territory leaders in the last day, and I think most of them will come to the party and recognise that they have got to make a contribution to ensuring that we do deliver wage justice for these female workers. (Time expired)

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can you outline how the case will now proceed?

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government will now work with the applicant unions to finalise the joint submissions for Fair Work Australia. The government will be meeting with SACS providers and state and territory governments over the next few days to discuss the Fair Work Australia submission and to invite them to work with us and to support the submission before Fair Work Australia. That means that together we will argue for rates of pay that fairly and properly value social and community sector work and which do not discriminate and which will finally end decades of unequal pay.

The ASU case is the first case before Fair Work Australia to test the new equal pay provisions in the Fair Work Act. The case is only possible because of the government's fair work system that provided the means for which these cases can be pursued. They would not have been possible under the previous Work Choices legislation. Nothing was done then to address pay inequity for women. The Fair Work Act allows this sort of advance to be made and we hope to see more— (Time expired)