Future Women Leadership Summit

Good afternoon ladies and gentleman and thank you for the opportunity to speak here this afternoon at the Future Women Leadership Summit.

I have already apologised to Helen for my crunched timeframe and let me apologise to all of you as well. It is a busy time, not the least of which is International Women’s Day tomorrow but a few other things as well so I really appreciate, Helen, your understanding and generosity.

Let me start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting here in Sydney this afternoon – the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation – and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. I extend my respects to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here in the room today.

Again I thank the Managing Director of Future Women, Helen McCabe, for inviting me to join the Summit today, and commend both Helen and Future Women for all the work they do. They play a vital role in improving the economic security of women across Australia, particularly vulnerable women.

I also want to acknowledge the exceptional work of the many women from whom you will hear during this Summit. They are experts and leaders in their respective fields and are working hard to achieve gender equality. They include as you know:

• Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins
• Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, The Hon Mary Wooldridge
• President of Chief Executive Women, Sam Mostyn, and
• Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce ANZ & ASEAN, Pip Marlow

Ladies and gentleman, this International Women’s Day comes at a time when we are facing enormous challenges both at home and globally.

Here in Australia, literally today, we are seeing the devastating impacts of flooding in Queensland and in New South Wales and the floods in New South Wales continue to grow. We know that natural disasters impact women in particular ways – whether as frontline workers, or in terms of the impact on households or the impact on their safety or their economic security.

We are also seeing women right now particularly drive Australia’s integrated responses, including the Minister for Emergency Management, Bridget McKenzie, the Minister for Government Services, Linda Reynolds, the New South Wales Minister for Emergency Services, Steph Cooke and the Police Commissioners of the two states affected, Katarina Carroll in Queensland and Commissioner Karen Webb in New South Wales. I commend the leadership of these women during difficult times. They are doing a very, very important job and I am very proud of the work that they are doing.

And globally, we are dealing with the most dire and appalling challenge to the international system of rules and norms in decades in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As we have made clear, Australia condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s unprovoked, illegal, unjustified invasion of Ukraine. We are deeply concerned by the humanitarian impact which we know will seriously lie upon the shoulders of women and children.

And so the Australian Government supports socially inclusive and gender-responsive policies including through our second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security launched last year. Because we know that women and girls are amongst those most disproportionally affected by disasters and by conflict.

Achieving gender equality more broadly is a priority for the Australian Government.

Having women in visible decision-making and leadership roles is essential for gender equality. It also helps to ensure better, more balanced decision-making that delivers the right outcomes for the whole community.

Having visible, trail-blazing women as role models will also help to inspire our next generation of women leaders. And I know every single one of you at every single table sitting in this room, woman or man, can think of an inspiring trail blazing Australian woman who is your personal hero for International Women’s Day tomorrow.

In March of last year, the Prime Minister established the Cabinet Taskforce on Women’s Safety and Economic Security, which he and I co-chair. It includes the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Finance Minister and all women members of the ministry.

The Taskforce brings these key ministers together to apply our expertise, to convey a wide range of voices from our communities, and to better coordinate, inform and address critical issues facing women and girls across Australia.

This is an important engagement reflecting also the highest number of women ever in a federal cabinet in Australia. An important role in terms of the leadership of women in the federal government.

An early and significant outcome of the work of the Cabinet Taskforce was the record $3.4 billion investment in women’s safety, economic security and health outlined in the 2021-22 Women’s Budget Statement.

This included almost $2 billion for economic security measures to support women’s employment and leadership opportunities.

As one example, the Women’s Leadership and Development Program is providing practical support through grant funds to pilot new leadership and employment initiatives driven by the Australian community.

The Government has invested a total of over $86 million in the program since 2018, which supports around 53,000 women and girls across Australia. The majority of these projects have been focusing on boosting women’s employment opportunities, and particularly in traditionally male-dominated sectors such as construction, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, aviation and coding.

Future Women is one of those organisations supported by the Women’s Leadership and Development Program to drive better economic outcomes for women through its Jobs Academy project.

We know that when women reach their full potential, their talents and skills benefit the whole population and help to drive economic growth.

When it comes to supporting more women into visible leadership positions in the public and private sectors, the Government is leading by example with our own gender targets.

We set a target of 50 percent women on Australian commonwealth government boards. We have met it. We have exceeded it. As at December last year, women held a record 50.2 per cent of Australian Government board positions – as I said, meeting that target and hitting the highest overall result since the targets were announced in 2016.

That is an 8.5 percentage point increase from the 30th of June 2013.

[applause]

And I congratulate those women who have taken up those roles because their leadership is important right across government.

We are also focused on boosting the number of women occupying Chair and Deputy Chair positions on government boards. The end of last year, women held a record 40 per cent of Chair and Deputy Chair positions.

And it is encouraging, but also shows there is more work to be done to reach gender balance in these positions. It is the case for most aspects of gender equality across all sectors, right across our communities, that while we have made progress, we need to keep improving and actively finding ways to do so.

Turning to the wider female workforce, I am pleased to say that we are seeing the highest women’s workforce participation rate on record at 62.1 per cent, demonstrating the critical role women are playing in Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

From today, Australian families will begin to benefit from higher subsidies when they have more than one child aged under five in child care. For the second and subsequent children, the child care subsidy will rise by 30 percentage points to a maximum of 95 per cent, benefitting about 250,000 families across Australia each year through reduced out-of-pocket costs.

This gives women, Australian parents, particularly women I should say, greater options and opportunities to return to work, to continue their careers to reach positions of leadership.

Narrowing the gender pay gap is also an economic and social priority. The Government had driven the gender pay gap down to its lowest level on record – it was at 13.4 per cent in the six months to November 2020. As with many things, COVID played some havoc with those numbers. But the gap currently sits at 13.8 per cent. Heading in the right direction. More to do but heading in the right direction.

That is 4 percentage points lower than when we came to Government in 2013 – again encouraging, but with that crystal clear awareness that we all have more to do.

That is why the Morrison Government last week strongly welcomed the release of the review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act, A review we commissioned and meeting our commitment made in the 2021-22 Women’s Budget Statement.

The review has 10 recommendations to progress gender equality outcomes in the workforce, to streamline the reporting process for businesses, to free up employers to take proactive action on gender equality in their workplaces.

This report was based on wide consultation with businesses, with employers, with employee organisations, with women’s organisations, with academics through eight virtual roundtables and over 150 written submissions.

And I want to thank all of those who contributed, and I acknowledge Pip Marlow who is here today, as I said, the CEO of Salesforce Australia and New Zealand and also Kerri Hartland, the Principal Adviser of Proximity, for their input and assistance as expert advisers to the review.

As a Government, we will implement these 10 recommendations, noting that the report requires some further consultation with business on some aspects.

The Commonwealth Government has a range of important levers but cannot alone drive down the gender pay gap or alone achieve gender equality. All levels of government across the country, the private sector, the community – we all have a role to play.

It does require collective responsibility to ensure that Australian workplaces are safe and respectful so that women can thrive and reach their full potential.

Every Australian has a right to feel and to be safe at work. And the Government is taking action to deliver on all of our commitments in the Roadmap to Respect – our response to the [email protected] report.

The report is an important and significant body of work and a key priority for our Government. We have already implemented or fully funded 42 of the 55 recommendations of the [email protected] Report.

And work is underway on all remaining recommendations.

The Attorney-General’s Department began a public consultation on the remaining legislative recommendations in February, which will provide further advice for Government.

We know that no workplace is immune – as the events of 2021 particularly demonstrated, devastatingly for Commonwealth Parliamentary workplaces.

In November, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins released the Set the Standard report following the independent review into Commonwealth Parliamentary workplaces.

I want to again commend Kate Jenkins and her team on this very important work. I also want to once more acknowledge Brittany Higgins for her courage and her bravery in speaking publicly. In doing so she has been an important catalyst for change.

The Government will implement all 28 recommendations of the Set the Standard report.

We have already established a multi-party leadership task force of which I am honoured to be a member, with Kerri Hartland as the independent expert chair.

The first outcome from the task force, in response to recommendation 1 of the Set the Standard report, was the statement of acknowledgement to the Parliament, which was delivered by the Presiding Officers in the House of Representatives and the Senate one month ago.

The task force has also established a Joint Standing Committee on Parliamentary Standards.

And both houses of Parliament have passed the required legislation to confirm that the Fair Work Act, the Age Discrimination Act and the Disability Discrimination Act apply to members of Parliament employees and the Work Health and Safety Act obligations applies to members and senators as employers – again from recommendation 24 of the Set the Standard report.

We have also commissioned the comprehensive review of the Members of Parliament Staff Act, which is due to report its conclusions by September in line with recommendation 18 of the report.

These are important steps, every single one of them, in response to the specific recommendations of the Set the Standard report. They demonstrate both the Parliament’s and the Government’s commitment to ensuring real change. It does not mean that all of the issues exposed in the review are resolved, but it does mean that important steps are being taken to make our Parliamentary workplaces safer and more respectful.

I want to finish by conveying what I think is an important message for Australian women and girls.

Recently, I’m not sure how to quite deal with this particular honour, I became Australia’s longest-serving female Senator since federation.

[applause]

Thank you. I assure many people who are incredulous that I started at eight.

[laughter]

But when I reflect on the almost 25 years that I have spent in this role, I am particularly conscious of the need, now more than ever, to encourage women and girls to consider a career in public office.

Public roles are immensely important, often challenging but equally rewarding. As I said there are currently eight women holding 33 per cent of Cabinet positions in my government. It is the strongest female representation in an Australian Government Cabinet on record. There a further four women holding ministry or assistant ministry positions. And I don’t often see that acknowledged or reported.

Today, the proportion of women in the Senate is 53.3 per cent – the highest it has ever been. And the proportion of women in the House of Representatives is 31.1 per cent, up from 28.7 per cent at the commencement of the previous Parliament. Again, more to do but very important progress. More for my party to do, absolutely, I 100 percent acknowledge that as well.

I know the perceptions of politics and politicians would be a whole new subject of discussion here today, but we do need more young women to consider leading our country to a successful future.

Politics needs women of all backgrounds and political views. It doesn’t matter to me which party you join or if you don’t join a party because I will always encourage women and girls to get involved.

I hope forums like this one today encourage the many women and girls that they touch across this country to pursue their goals and reach their leadership potential.

International Women’s Day is an important day. It is a time to reflect and to celebrate our achievements, of which there are many, and it is a time to redouble our efforts to create a more gender equal future. Thank you.