Page 658 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
(b) investigate what measures are required to conduct a pay equity audit of the ACT Public Service and report back to the Assembly in the May sitting period of 2010; and
(c) have the Minister for Women provide an annual statement to the Assembly that outlines its efforts in improving the economic and financial independence for women.”.
As I said, I thank Ms Hunter for her motion and the opportunity to recognise International Women’s Day in the Assembly. Each year on 8 March women all over the world celebrate International Women’s Day, as they have done for the past 99 years. What started as women factory workers protesting at their working conditions has become an important way of marking how far we have come in our struggle for equity, safety and representation, and how far we have to go.
The ACT, compared to the rest of Australia, and indeed the world, is a community where women have made significant gains in achieving gender equity. Overall, women in the ACT are well educated, well paid and have opportunities to participate in decision making that many of our sisters across Australia do not have. This is reflected in our high women’s workforce participation rate and in the relatively low gender pay gap, compared to the rest of Australia.
However, Australian Bureau of Statistics reports indicate that ACT women earned 10.5 per cent less than men in January 2010. The pay gap in the ACT narrowed by 2.5 per cent compared to May 2009 and remains significantly lower than the national level of around 17 per cent, according to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. The ABS also reports that the workforce participation rate for women in the ACT is 68 per cent compared to a national average of 58.5 per cent.
These statistics do not mean that our government can rest on its laurels. We will reinforce our commitment to women and to gender equity next month when I plan to table the second ACT women’s plan in this Assembly. We know that women are overrepresented in low income households, in low pay sectors and in workforces where there is a high level of casual employment. As Ms Hunter points out, women have a strong role in the community sector and we take a significant proportion of the caring responsibilities in both paid and unpaid roles.
It is a contradiction that women’s workforce participation has increased steadily in the years since World War II but the gender division of labour remains stubbornly static. There is limited evidence that women and men share the responsibilities of home and family in the same way that we now share the responsibilities of breadwinning. We know that as a community we must continue to seek ways to ensure that women and girls can reach their full potential.
The issues of gender pay equity are very much at the forefront of work being undertaken by ministers for women across Australia. In September this year I will chair the Ministerial Conference on the Status of Women. At that meeting ministers from across Australia and New Zealand will reflect on the outcomes of a series of gender pay equity roundtables, as well as the recommendations of a number of
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video