Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Inquiry into the Victorian Government’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ms KEALY (Lowan) (10:22): Today I would like to speak to the inquiry into the Victorian government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly I would like to pay recognition to my female colleagues, the member for Euroa and Melina Bath, as yesterday was International Women’s Day and I did not have an opportunity to speak yesterday. So I would like to thank my dear colleagues in the National Party for their enormous support and encouragement. They are always there for me when I need it, and they are very strong women and fierce advocates for their local area. I am very, very proud that they are colleagues of mine in the National Party.

In regard to women, they have certainly carried more than their fair share over the pandemic. This is emphasised within the committee report regarding the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact we have seen a devastating impact on women, whether it is about losing hours, losing their job or picking up an additional burden at home, particularly around homeschooling responsibilities. It is certainly women who have carried a heavy, heavy load, and we need to make sure that as much as possible is done to ensure these women can recover and rebuild as soon as possible.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I ask members to be a little bit quieter in the chamber while the member for Lowan is on her feet.

Ms KEALY: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I note that over the pandemic we saw a lot of the restrictions that were brought on by the government have a significant and greater impact on women than they did on men. For example, the gender pay gap actually increased over the duration of the pandemic. From 9.6 per cent back in 2019 it rose to 12.2 per cent in May 2021. At the same time that Victoria saw an increase in the gender pay gap, other states saw a reduction in the gender pay gap. In South Australia, for example, they reduced their gender pay gap by 1.5 per cent down to 7 per cent. So at this current stage we have got South Australia with a gender pay gap of 7 per cent and Victoria with 12.2 per cent. The restrictions cut very, very deep when it comes to breaking down some of those established norms that we have got in the community and show that we are really not that far away from going back to the bad old days when women were paid so much less than men and were not paid an appropriate amount of money for the work that they did. They were not recognised for that.

The government’s restrictions and lockdowns unfairly discriminated against women more often than they did against men. We also saw that women carried the worst of the pandemic’s mental, social and economic impacts. For example, we know that women lost their jobs at nearly five times the rate of men over the pandemic, and nearly a third of Victorian women relied on federal government support during the lockdown. By comparison, a fifth of men found themselves in the same situation. More women than men had their working hours drastically reduced, shifted from full-time to work-at-home arrangements or just lost their shifts altogether—lost their hours. That is because we have an increased number of women who work in industries that were heavily affected by the lockdowns and restrictions, whether it is working in hospitality or the hairdressers and beauty parlours and other shops that were significantly impacted by the lockdowns. Now, these are businesses that employ more women. They are also more often owned and operated by women, and they are the ones that had those additional burdens put on them. They were closed more often over the pandemic, they had additional requirements when it came to being vaccinated themselves, and some of those barriers like wearing a mask in those circumstances was a deterrent for people to come and support these women-dominated businesses. We also know that women took on the lion’s share of caregiving and that was particularly seen around the supervision of young students over remote-schooling periods.

So we know that in the pandemic we have seen so much impact put on women. We have seen that gender pay gap increase. We have seen women lose their jobs and lose hours of work, we have seen them take on additional responsibilities at home and we have also seen them seek out help for mental health support more often than men. It takes months now to see a psychologist or a counsellor to get support. What we need to see in Victoria is to get away from these decisions and restrictions and lockdowns that are putting so much pressure on women. We need to make sure that we have got a policy framework that actually helps women to recover and rebuild their lives, not just for themselves but also for their family. The Liberals and Nationals have a plan to do that, and The Nationals will deliver that when elected this November.