Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Women, Senator Gallagher. The Prime Minister convened National Cabinet last week, bringing together all jurisdictions to work together to address the scourge of gender based violence. Addressing violence is a priority in both Working for Women—the national strategy for gender equality—and the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children. Can the minister please update the Senate on the outcomes of National Cabinet and how the government is working to improve the lives of women across Australia?

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

I thank Senator Stewart for the question and for her ongoing commitment to driving gender equality—indeed, all of the members of the government Senate team in doing that work. Too many women live in fear, and too many lives have been stolen. Too many women live with ongoing trauma from their experience of violence in this country. It's not just about women's safety and wellbeing; gender based violence stands in the way of women achieving their potential, including their economic potential.

This is why ending gender based violence has been such a priority for the Albanese Labor government. Last Friday, National Cabinet did agree to a $4.7 billion package that harnesses important opportunities to work together to prevent violence and, importantly, to support and provide certainty to community based legal services. This important package brings together efforts and funding to deliver much needed support for frontline specialists and legal services in responding to gender based violence and better innovative approaches to better identify and respond to high-risk perpetrators to stop violence escalating, and it addresses the roles that systems and harmful industries play in exacerbating violence.

The package includes a range of measures including $3.9 million for a new national access to justice partnership and a critical $800 million funding uplift, with a focus on uplifting legal services responding to gender based violence. For the first time, we will provide ongoing funding certainty beyond the five-year agreement so that that sector does have that certainty that has been so badly needed. This is new money. The former government, of course, had left a funding cliff, with no funding for these critical services beyond the mid-2025s. We've addressed that cliff and uplifted the funding. We've also agreed to a new national partnership agreement on family, domestic and sexual violence responses.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stewart, first supplementary?

Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Achieving gender equality relies on women being safe and economically secure. Can you please outline the work the government has done to drive gender equality, including initiatives that are supporting the economic security of women?

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

I thank Senator Stewart for the supplementary, and it's an important one, because we can't look at women's safety in isolation from other areas where we need to address gender inequality. That's why in our government, when we are going through the budget process, we are assessing every NPP, every new proposal, against what it means for women in this country. We do gender analysis to make sure that we fully understand the implications of those decisions that we're taking. That helped to inform our revised tax cuts so that more women received more of those tax cuts, with 90 per cent of women being better off.

It has informed the decisions we've taken around PPL, to extend PPL, and also to add superannuation to PPL and in terms of the work we've done around early childhood educators and aged-care workers—a highly feminised industry where 90 per cent in that sector, on average, are women. That has informed the decisions we have taken to support pay rises. Publishing employer gender pay gaps—the list is too long. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stewart, second supplementary?

Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is inspiring to hear about the progress the Albanese Labor government has made on gender equality in just two years and what is possible when you make it a priority. As the first majority women government in Australian political history, it is clear that having women in parliament drives policy change. How important has it been to increase the number of women in parliament and around the decision-making tables of government?

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

I thank Senator Stewart for that question too because it is important. Having gone from serving in a government where I was the only member in the cabinet to serving in a cabinet now with record numbers of women, and serving in a caucus where more women than men are members of that caucus for the first time in Australian political history, I am very proud. It does make a difference.

Thirty years ago the Labor Party set affirmative action targets. Now the government that has 52 per cent women is 100 per cent supportive of making women's lives better and pursuing gender equality. Look over this side and then look over that side. I've got a message for the Liberal Party—the coalition. You know your big problem? Your big problem, as you drive gender equality, is that you keep preselecting men. That's the problem. It's really easy. You've just got to stop preselecting as many men and preselect a few more women. Then you might get more women in your caucus. (Time expired)