Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Ministers statements: International Women’s Day

Ms WILLIAMS (Dandenong—Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Women, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs) (14:06): Today marks International Women’s Day, and while it is a time to celebrate the achievements women make in our community it is also a time to reflect on how far we still have to go. Women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, but the fact is that the pandemic has not created these inequalities, it has merely magnified what was already there. We have a pay gap that widened last year for the first time in seven years. In 2021 only one of the 23 CEO appointments to ASX 300 companies was female. Women are over-represented in low-paid, insecure work. We are more likely to be unemployed and twice as likely to be underemployed. We retire with almost half the superannuation savings of men despite living longer on average. And the risk of gendered violence, as we all know, remains pervasive.

The theme for this International Women’s Day is ‘Break the bias’, and I am very proud that this government started the important structural work to break the bias long before the pandemic hit. We are implementing Australia’s first gender equality act with clear actions to address the gender pay gap and reduce workplace sexual harassment in the public sector. We have established a gender responsive budgeting unit to ensure that outcomes for women are embedded as part of our state budget process. This was made possible because of strong representation: 48 per cent of those on the government benches are women and we have a majority of women in cabinet. We have achieved gender parity on paid government boards too. From kinder to free TAFE we are removing barriers, getting more women into work and supporting the economic security that we need and that we deserve. I call on everyone in this chamber, in every chamber and in every room to stand up and call out gender bias at work, at home and in our community; to stand up and take action against bias embedded in our systems and structures. This International Women’s Day and every single day we fight to break the bias and improve outcomes for all women.