Today is International Women’s Day where we celebrate the contribution of women to all aspects of life and recognise that we have more to do to achieve gender equality. But I’m so proud to be part of a government and have a prime minister that truly believes in that and are already taking big steps, in relatively short time, to get there. This morning, the Prime Minister has hosted a special event for Canberra women to celebrate and appreciate all that they do for our community and workplaces, and I’ve just really appreciated that support today. Thanks PM.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Alicia. And it’s been great honour for me and Jodie to host Canberra women from organisations who are making such an enormous difference to this local community here. Whether it be dealing with the challenge and scourge of domestic violence, whether it be economic empowerment of women, looking after people from refugee backgrounds, providing support for homelessness, providing support for services across the board. Particularly those for women from diverse organisations, including the Salvation Army, various charitable organisations, not for profits, and people who are making a difference each and every day. On International Women’s Day we celebrate the contribution of women, but we also recommit ourselves to gender equality. And that’s what Katy Gallagher did yesterday with our Gender Equality Statement. Yesterday’s announcement of superannuation for paid parental leave is an important next step. It follows the announcements and decisions that we’ve made to make childcare cheaper, to have ten days paid domestic and family violence leave, to publish the gender pay gap and therefore make those issues transparent. To provide support for feminised industries through measures such as our fifteen per cent increase for Aged Care Workers that have seen the gender pay gap, head to its lowest level ever of just 12 per cent. There is more that we need to do. Some of the response to the superannuation on paid parental leave announcement indicates that. This isn’t welfare, it’s about economic and gender equality. It’s about making sure that our whole society benefits when there is more equality there and that’s what yesterday’s announcement was about. There’s more to do, but we will work each and every day to make a difference.
JOURNALIST: PM, can we just get a comment on the death of Jack Fitzgibbon?
PRIME MINISTER: The passing of Jack Fitzgibbon is an enormous tragedy which is felt by his own family, by Joel and Diane, by his sisters, by the Labor family, but will also be felt very hard by the Defence Force family as well. It’s a reminder that the men and women who wear our uniform do so in taking a risk and they take a risk in order to support our way of life, in order to defend our values, our democracy and our nation. We give gratitude to our Defence Force each and every day. And to Jack, we express our sincere condolences for all of his family. We honour his contribution and we pay tribute to him today.
