Gender Equality

The Coalition supports women’s economic security. The coalition has always supported women’s economic security. In government, we delivered more than $5.5 billion in funding for women through our women’s budget statements. Our policies boosted workforce participation to record levels, reduced the gender pay gap and empowered more women to run their own businesses. That’s really important because that’s income. We continue to support the closing of the gender pay gap. We welcomed the first annual release of gender pay gap data from corporate Australia this year from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. And we put corporates on notice. They need to be doing more than just talking the talk. We don’t need to see more morning teas and cupcakes with pink icing; we need real policies to promote and support women across Australia. Those opposite were happy to spend time and money on social policies such as the Voice campaign, but are they willing to do the same to reduce the gender pay gap for good?

It’s so important that we close not only the gender pay but also the superannuation gap. Far too many women are being left behind with less in their superannuation balance in retirement compared to their male counterparts. We hear it time and time again. That’s women aged 55 and over, which is my age. That is very confronting for many women in that age bracket because we are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless Australians. That’s scary if your relationship or your marriage breaks down and there are legal proceedings. Women in this age group are finding themselves in insecure housing. It’s so real for those who are struggling with cost-of-living pressures right now. They’re paying ridiculous rent under this government’s watch. They’re paying ridiculous amounts of money and watching their lifestyles go backwards under this Prime Minister.

The Coalition supports the principle of super on government funded paid parental leave. We support that principle. We have a strong record in supporting women’s economic security. It’s important to note that Labor is 14 years late to this policy. The Coalition actually took paid parental leave policies to the 2010 and 2013 elections, which included paying superannuation on government funded paid parental leave, only for it to be opposed by those opposite and their political partners, the Greens. We extended PPL in government and are working to improve the government’s current proposal to extend its recent extension to 26 weeks. While this helps support women and families in the long run, it doesn’t help families struggling with the cost-of-living pressures right now.

Let’s be real: superannuation is important, but increasing homeownership is critical to boosting women’s economic security. We know that the key to economic security is housing security, with no or little mortgage payments in your retirement years. When heading towards that 60 to 65 mark, you should be able to gear up the rest of your life to have secure housing and not pay huge rent to a landlord. That’s why we believe in homeownership so much on this side; in fact, we have a shadow minister for homeownership. We believe Australians should be able to use their superannuation to draw down on a deposit to buy their own home, which is the biggest purchase they will make in their lifetime. With growing figures of older women finding themselves homeless, homeownership in retirement has never been more important. I can’t stress this point enough.

We want to see stronger action taken on women’s safety. This is something the coalition was focused on in government. We have repeatedly expressed our commitment to combatting the scourge of domestic violence in this country. Too many women were killed as a result of violence in 2024, and too many others were assaulted. One is too many. It must come to an end. I’ve spoken about this before in this place and demanded that it come to an end. The numbers are going in the wrong direction and immediate action is required. We need the government to actually deliver on the promises it makes, particularly when it comes to the safety of women and children.

It’s not good enough that this Labor government committed to 500 front line services and community workers to support those experiencing family and domestic violence almost two years ago. Almost two years ago and they’ve failed to deliver on that commitment. In the Prime Minister’s own state of New South Wales, there are only 30 workers on the ground out of the 148 he promised. Again, we see broken promises from this Prime Minister.