Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with Ella, Jo and Sheila, who work in housing and homelessness, financial counselling and family and domestic violence from my home state of Victoria. They travelled to Parliament House with over 20 of their colleagues from around the country to advocate for the ASU's campaign to ensure that their incredibly skilled work is respected and equal. Ella, Jo, Sheila and thousands of their colleagues are part of the community and disability sectors, which have been historically undervalued, woman dominated and award reliant. They are also trailblazers in campaigning for equal pay.

These workers are continuing their leadership for women workers by pursuing a campaign in their workplaces, in the parliament and in the Fair Work Commission to have their work recognised as skilled, respected and equal, which seeks to fix the classification structure in their award to stop employers being able to systematically undervalue their work. The campaign also seeks to close the longstanding loophole that allows disability support allows workers to be underpaid.

Sheila told me that, despite her many years in the family violence sector, instead of her pay rate increasing with her years of experience, skill and expertise, she is paid less now than she was when she began. To add insult to injury, the work she has been doing over this time has become increasingly more complex. The ASU, ably led by National Secretary Emiline Gaske, is supporting these workers. This support has included commissioning research that found a whopping 67 per cent of workers just like Sheila are underclassified. They want this fixed and our support in doing so.

To those amazing workers who have travelled to Canberra and all of their colleagues in vital community services supporting vulnerable Australians everywhere, thank you for raising your voices in advocating for your sector so you can keep supporting the millions of Australians who need your expertise every day.