Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Ministers statements: women in Victoria’s Big Build

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery) (14:13): I am delighted to update the house on the tremendous contribution women right across the state are making to helping deliver the Andrews Labor government’s Big Build. As colleagues around the state know, there are 165 projects in road and rail, big and small, that are supporting us building better transport connections and supporting that tremendously strong pipeline of workers on the construction sites and in the supply chain. This is the double benefit that we are driving through having a strong transport infrastructure agenda. It is firstly about building better connections so people can get home to their families safer and sooner. We know particularly for women, who rely on public transport more often than men to get to work and to access services, having better transport connections is a great enabler of better equity in terms of their economic and social participation. Then of course there is that tremendous pipeline of the workforce that is supported through this program, a workforce that those opposite wanted to cut and block and stop. They did not want women or men working on our projects.

We take a very different approach. That is why just as we are removing 110 level crossings we are working hard to remove barriers to women coming and working on our construction sites. There is the building equity policy, a policy that has at its foundation making sure that there are mandates for the number of women who work on our projects.

Why have we done this? Quite simply, as the Minister for Women said, quotas work. Exhibit A, exhibit B – in terms of how quotas make a difference. Quotas make a real and fundamental difference in terms of how you can break down systemic cultural barriers to women’s participation. We are doing it in construction, we are doing it in transport and we are doing it across so many different sectors of our community, and that is the leadership of the Andrews Labor government.

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Frankston!

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Can I remind members that applause is not welcome in the chamber.