THE HARVESTER ORATION: THE URGENT CASE FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN AUSTRALIA

07 DECEMBER, 2022

I pay my respects to the ancient Bunurong people, upon whose land we meet tonight. 

I would also like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people as the Traditional Owners of the Harvester site for which we are commemorating tonight. 

I honour their custodianship and care for the country.

I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from all points of the southern sky. 

In the same spirit of respect and reconciliation, I look forward to working together as part of the Albanese Labor Government to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, including a constitutionally enshrined Voice to our National Parliament. 

I’d also like to welcome special guests and dignitaries with us tonight.

And before I go on I would like to congratulate these wonderful Labor members on their recent re-election and their tireless work in seeing the Andrews Labor Government re-elected for yet another term!

And, of course, Member for Fraser, Daniel Mulino who can’t be with us tonight due to COVID, but I want to acknowledge the huge contribution Daniel makes to our Caucus.

Having someone of his intellect, passion and commitment to the Labor cause is such an asset to our Caucus and our movement.

Thank you for inviting me to speak tonight.

 

It’s a great honour to be able to address you in the first Harvester Oration since the election of the Albanese Labor Government.

And also the first Harvester Oration post-COVID. 

I know that following on from previous speakers like our new Labor Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, I have big shoes to fill.

The Harvester decision, of which this event is named after, is entrenched not only in our history - but also in Australian culture and our national psyche.

It transcends those who have spoken in the past and those will deliver this oration in the future.

It underpins a movement of collectivism and provides guidance for all of us to reflect upon.

It also acts as a point in time from which we can measure progress.

I was reminded of this just last week during the Senate debate on Labor’s industrial relations legislation, that as true believers our work in this space is never done.

That we continue to develop and respond to our struggle for justice and a fair go.

And that we cannot take our eyes off protecting the rights and conditions of working people because our opponents will never stop working to undermine them.

 

Labor people understand that Government is a privilege and an opportunity and not something to be ever taken for granted.

The Prime Minister, my ministerial colleagues, the Labor Caucus and our candidates fought hard for victory in May this year.

Winning government never comes easily – despite the assistance offered to the Labor cause by Scott Morrison being Scott Morrison.

And, as a Labor Government – we differentiate ourselves from our opponents.

Because we want to do things.

We want to unite the country rather than divide it. 

We are capable of acknowledging problems - and committing to solve them. 

We want to grab the opportunities and help shape the future of the country.

Government provides a platform – whether in private like Cabinet – or public like these events tonight, where ministers can share our vision for the kind of country we can be and the policy, social and cultural changes we need to get us there.  

Just six months ago, although it feels a lot longer, the Prime Minister appointed me as Australia’s Finance Minister, Minister for Women and Minister for the Public Service. 

It is a great honour to serve in these roles.

This was not a random collection of portfolios, rather a deliberate decision on the part of the Prime Minister to bring the women’s portfolio right into the centre of all government decision-making. 

To turn away from the structural failures, mistakes, and tin ear of the previous administration.

And send a clear message that there was a very different government in town.

This was – and still is – an important message to the women of Australia.

Women were, at best ignored by the previous government, and at worst actively antagonised by them.

Remember how lucky we all felt – when our Prime Minister at the time, told us as we Marched for Justice in March 2021 – that we were lucky not to be shot at.

Tonight, I want to make the case to you about another big fight to be had as a movement and as a society – equal in scope and importance to the claims litigated in the Harvester decision of 1907. 

Tonight, I will argue that the country that prides itself on the notion of a fair go for all must extend that fair go to the women of Australia.

 

In the spirit of the Harvester decision and the tradition of our movement we must apply the principles of equality and fairness – principles that drive Labor people to address one of Australia’s most uncomfortable truths.

Australia has a problem when it comes to gender equality.

I’m going to take you through some statistics to paint this picture for you:

• Australia came 43rd on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, sandwiched between Bulgaria and Suriname. 
• The national gender pay gap stubbornly sits at 14.1% - its higher for First Nations women
• The median undergraduate starting salary for women is 3.9% less than men despite women graduating in greater numbers from university courses.
• Women’s super-balances are 23.1% less than men as we approach retirement age
• Older women are the fastest growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness and women over 60 are the lowest earning of all demographic groups nationally.
• Women’s workforce participation lags behind men consistently by 8-9 percentage points
• According to WGEA data - women only hold 17.6% of chair positions, 31.2% of directorships, 19.4 % of CEO positions and 34.5% of key management positions
• And shockingly, 22.3% of governing boards, reporting to WEGA, have no women at all. 

The reality of these numbers lessens us as a country, constrains us economically, wastes talent and potential, harms - and in too many cases - kills us. 

I am going to return to the impact of violence against women later in my remarks.

Tonight I want to make the case that gender equality matters – in all areas of civil society – in workplaces and in homes.

It matters for the economy, for the collective good, for us as individuals and for the health and happiness of future generations.

As Minister for Finance, I have a clear interest in the economic case for gender equality.

And as any good finance minister would say - let’s talk about the numbers and let’s talk about the cost. 

• Gender based violence costs Australia $26 billion a year
• Gendered financial abuse is estimated to cost $10.9 billion a year – with $5.7 billion of that cost borne directly by victims
• Sexual harassment costs $3.8 billion a year
• The gender pay gap represents $51.8 billion a year 

And these are just the costs we can model and extrapolate – based on what we can see and confidently measure about how women – and men – are moving through this gendered world.

There are costs to businesses too:

• Boards with single gender directorships were 37% more likely to fail during COVID
• Family and domestic violence is estimated to cost businesses $1.9 billion a year

There’s also a numbers story in the prize of achieving gender equality:

• If women’s workforce participation rate matched that of men’s we would increase GDP by $353 billion by 2050 (or 8.7 per cent)
• If we reached a 40:40:20 representation across Australian industries, we could close the gender pay gap by a third
• And recent research by Deloitte indicates that if we shifted gender norms by 2050 we would see an additional $128 billion each year in Australia’s economy and access to 461,000 additional full time employees each year on average to 2071. 

If you are doing back of the envelope calculations – which, of course, I cannot endorse in my finance role – I have just listed tens of billions of dollars of yearly cost, wasted talent and opportunity as the result of gender equality.

I have also listed the billions of dollars of economic return and the promise of potential, choice and fulfilment for Australian women if we push the dial towards a gender equal Australia. 

As both Finance Minister and Minister for Women, what I can clearly say is that the cost is high, but the benefits are much higher.

 

When we speak about cost – the cost to women; the cost to our economy; the opportunity cost and opportunities lost for women right now – there is no more profound example than the cost and impact of violence against women in our society. 

This is playing out in our society every day. 

We have all heard the most shocking statistic, that one woman dies every 10 days in Australia at the hands of her former or current partner.

That means on this metric that before this year is out, over the next three weeks, two more women will die as a result of domestic violence.

Every two minutes, police around the nation deal with a domestic and family violence matter.

On average, that’s about 5000 calls each and every week.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, the statistics for violence are even starker.

First Nations women are 11-times more likely to be killed due to family violence than non-Indigenous women.

They are also 34-times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of violence. 

One in three Australian women over the age of 15 have experienced violence.

One in two women have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime.

And then there’s the violence against women that doesn’t leave a physical mark.It’s the partner always checking her phone, it is the husband that controls the money, or the heating, cooling or alarm and camera systems or doesn’t let her see her friends or family.

And let’s talk about the human cost of sexual violence for survivors.

Higher health costs, higher levels of financial stress, disrupted education and careers to name a few. We know all of this. They are grim statistics but well understood. 

The real challenge is to work out how to shift the dial. 

Reports to police of sexual violence are increasing and reached an all-time high in July this year – with the majority of reported incidents occurring when the complainant was under 18.

But only a third of those reports lead to an arrest, summons, formal caution or other legal action.

And around half of all complaints are withdrawn by the complainant.

Just 1.5% of sexual assaults result in a conviction.

While increased reporting shows that there is more public awareness avenues and encouragement for women to report, these statistics also show that we are not living up to our responsibility to ensure that when women do speak up.

That they are supported.

There are too many stories of women who tell us that when they report violence, particularly sexual violence – they feel abandoned, victimised, put in the spotlight. 

Every day, women around Australia are experiencing sexual violence and seeing the justice system as an extension to their trauma, not a response to it.

I am not taking aim at the justice system and this is not a reflection of any one individual case. 

Criticisms of women’s experience of the justice system are well documented and understood.

The challenge is what can be done about it?

If we continue to see women re-traumatised by simply trying to seek justice – the hard work to empower women to report cases will be lost. 

The right to a fair trial is fundamental – as is the presumption of innocence - there’s no argument there. 

But it is a problem if we are operating in an environment that re-traumatises plaintiffs, victims-survivors and claimants. 

We have duty to look at our systems and processes.

To understand where and why people who may access those systems see them as a deterrent to seeking justice.

We have a responsibility to ensure that women feel comfortable and supported to report any act of violence against them.

We are clearly not there yet.

 

In the lead up to the May Election, Labor committed to lead a national push to fix the way the justice system deals with sexual violence cases.

To protect women and children who have been victims of assault from more trauma.

We have reached agreement with states and territories on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children - a huge credit to my ministerial colleague, the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth for steering that significant piece of work.

We have, in our first six months in office, also passed legislation to provide paid family and domestic violence leave. 

We are implementing all 55 recommendations from the Respect@Work report including legislating a positive duty on employers to provide workplaces free of harassment.

Investing in consent and respectful relationships education in schools to stop violence before it starts. 

But anyone who has been watching the #MeToo movement, the March for Justice, the reckoning that’s happening in workplaces, knows there’s much more that needs to be done.

Because the prevalence, extent, weight and cost of the problem is so massive.

If I was to ask for everyone in the room to put up their hand if they have been themselves or knows someone close to them who has experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, I can almost guarantee that every woman’s hand would go up in this room. 

So what can be done to drive progress towards a more gender equal Australia?

This is not a job the Federal Government can manage on its own.

• We need to enlist the policy levers and support of other governments.
• The buy in from the private sector and harness the collective action of the mighty union movement which consistently takes up the fight for change.
• And the expertise of advice of those on the front line.
• The brains of researchers and academics who have dedicated their life’s work to understanding the drivers of and solution to the gender imbalanced world we live in.
• And we need to get real about the challenge.

For too long in this country we have talked about violence, and economic opportunity and security as though they are unrelated.

We have siloed gender equality at work from gender equality at home.

If we are honest, Harvester was part of this – it brought waged work – by men – to the front and ignored the critical connections to unpaid care and household labour.

It looked at the uneven power dynamic between worker and boss, but not at the gendered power dynamic between men and women. 

As a movement, we know better now. 

This government knows better – we know we cannot pick these issues off one by one.

For the Albanese Government, gender and addressing gender inequality has been and will remain central to all of the work before us across government.

In just our first six months in government I have seen a big change of engagement just bringing the women’s portfolio into one of the key economic portfolios.

In the Expenditure Review Committee, in the Caucus and in the parliament, pursuing gender equality is never off the table.

And that’s not just because we are the first Commonwealth government to have over 50 per cent women in our Caucus - but it definitely helps!

Gender impacts are in our Cabinet submissions, in our briefing papers and in our policies. 

We look to gender equality on our boards and see it on the government benches in Parliament. 

In the first half of next year we will have a National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality.

Australia is one of the few developed countries that does not set targets for gender equality and measure progress

We will fix that. 

 

We have taken our first steps towards gender responsive budgeting in our policy decisions.

Investment in early education and care – the clear shift from treating it as welfare to a core economic policy was part of this.

As was extending Paid Parental Leave to create better opportunities to share parenting and reduce reliance on women as primary carers.

And of course, our recently passed IR reforms.

Secure Jobs, Better Pay became law this week and passed the parliament as a signature piece of legislation to round out our first six months back in government.

Whilst not the focus of much of the public commentary - the changes contained in the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act as they relate to women -are the single biggest reforms to advance women’s rights at work since the Sex Discrimination Act passed in 1984.

This reform makes gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act, as an overarching object and as well as in the modern awards objective and in the minimum wage objective.

This is backed up with a pay equity principle, removing the need to find a male comparator and establishing a Pay Equity Expert Panel and a Care and Community Sector Expert Panel. 

The reforms also ban pay secrecy, strengthen access to flexible arrangements and prohibit sexual harassment.

And the most controversial element our biggest fight – reforming multi-employer bargaining – was driven by our commitment to get women a better deal – to fix a system that had consistently failed low-paid, highly feminised sectors of the economy. 

The Albanese Government knows that we must show leadership in building progress towards a gender equal Australia.

Through our policies and programs we can, and should help shape a nation where women are valued, respected and reach their full potential.

But it’s also the responsibility of all Members of Parliament to do the same.

As national leaders it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to demonstrate that we practice what we preach.

 

Last week marks one year since Kate Jenkins handed down her Set the Standard report which looked into Parliament as a workplace. 

It was a sobering and sorry read. 

The parliament agreed with the report.

It accepted the recommendations.

Parties and independents have committed ourselves to the reform that is needed in our own backyard.

One of the strongest messages in the report can be found without reading the report.

It’s there on the cover - Set the Standard.

It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

The Nations parliament should be the exemplar of all workplaces. 

Progress is underway on implementing this report but there is still much more to be done before we reach that exemplar status.

One example I will give you is conduct and behaviour at Senate Estimates.

Whilst Estimates is an important scrutiny role to ensure good governance,

I don’t believe it should be used as a platform to pursue political campaigns that target individuals – often women outside the parliament, with personal attacks.

Especially where there is no right for those individuals to reply or defend themselves. 

I saw several examples of this just in the last round of hearings. 

And whilst estimates is a robust forum - believe me I’ve had plenty of robust exchanges there - our behaviour as leaders and standard setters is public and on the record for all to see. 

We hold privileged and powerful positions.

And with that should come great responsibility and the highest levels of personal conduct about how we choose to use that power.

Perhaps the codes of conduct for MPs and Senators will change and improve some of this behaviour.

If not - it’s something the Senate should examine.

 

In concluding my remarks tonight, I want to finish by asking you to imagine what a gender equal world would look like.

Maybe it is as simple as seeing your female colleague who left the workplace to have a baby and wanted to return to work part-time being given a job commensurate with her skills and experience. 

Or maybe it’s your daughter – who excelled at STEM subjects throughout school and university – and is now employed in a workplace filled equally with women and men, where she doesn’t have to experience sexist jokes, exclusion and risks to her safety. 

Maybe it is seeing your colleague doing the same job being paid the same wage as you are. 

Or our aged care workers being paid a wage that reflects the importance of care and support they provide some of our most elderly and vulnerable citizens. 

Maybe it is the female employee who feels comfortable and supported accessing domestic violence leave from her employer and receiving the support she needs to make choices about her and her family’s future free of violence.

And if we can’t quite imagine that world where there is gender equality, let’s agree on progressing a clear and well-defined pathway towards it.

This, friends, is a campaign worth fighting for.

Thank you for the honour of speaking with you tonight.