Wednesday, 4 August 2021

Gender equality

Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (19:23): (5969) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Women, and the action I seek is for the minister to meet with women in my electorate to discuss the barriers women face in the workplace. We know that women experience discrimination and disadvantage more often than men. We know that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic 57 per cent of women were already in insecure work, largely in retail, hospitality, education and health. We know that in Australia women have experienced a greater reduction in hours worked than men as a result of the pandemic.

In Victoria employment among women fell by a total of 33 000 jobs from March to December 2020. We know that Victorian women make up the overwhelming majority of those working in the lowest paid occupations and retire with around half of the superannuation of Victorian men. We know that one in two mothers—one in two—report experiencing workplace discrimination as a result of their pregnancy or parental leave or on return to work, and three in 10 employers still do not have a flexible working policy.

The Andrews Labor government is committed to addressing the drivers of gender inequality, because we know that bad attitudes toward women lead to bad outcomes for women. We have established an independent inquiry into economic equity for Victorian women to address longstanding systemic inequality and to find solutions for problems such as unequal pay and barriers to success for women at work. We have also committed to gender equality and diversity in our governments, with the 2020 local government area elections seeing Victoria officially having the highest number of female councillors in Australian history. In all, 272 women were elected—43.8 per cent of all councillors.

The Jobs Victoria Fund program subsidises wages to help create more work for Victorians and is targeted at increasing women in the workforce, with at least 60 per cent of all jobs supported by the fund being for women. The government also has a range of women’s leadership programs to help women of all ages and backgrounds to build their leadership skills. We want more women to be promoted into leadership and decision-making roles. The Andrews government is committed to achieving gender equality in the workplace. That means cracking open male-dominated industries like construction. More women are active in the Victorian labour market now than ever before, but they still only make up 2 per cent of workers in Australian construction. We are undertaking the biggest infrastructure agenda this state has ever seen, creating thousands of jobs, and we are making sure that these jobs are for all Victorians, with initiatives to ensure women can become fully qualified, well-paid tradespeople.

Finally, I want to add that the nation’s biggest ever investment in social housing, led by my friend the Minister for Planning to my left, will deliver for women. Older women are the fastest growing cohort of homeless Australians, which is why the Big Housing Build is expressly catering for that demand as well as including 1000 units for victim-survivors of family violence. The Andrews Labor government is delivering for women each and every day.