Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Ms CLAYDON (Newcastle—Deputy Speaker) (11:57): I welcome the opportunity to speak to Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026 with a special focus around women's economic equality, because it's never an afterthought for the Albanese Labor government but rather the centrepiece of our economic plan. If you're going to talk economics, you need to talk about how you achieve gender equity, and you are never going to get there, on the other side of the chamber, so listen up.

Since 2022 women's total employment has increased by 193,400 positions, with more women now in fulltime work with greater security, higher pay and the opportunity to build long-term financial independence. Importantly these achievements are much more than just statistics. They mean women are able to earn to their full potential, reduce reliance on insecure work and provide stability for their families, as well as boosting our nation's productivity.

We've also taken real steps to close the gender-pay gap. Labor has legislated to make gender pay equity a core principle in workplace relations. We've pushed for stronger wage outcomes in industries where women dominate, like aged care, health, education and social services, and we have delivered four consecutive increases to the minimum wage, lifting the pay of nearly three million Australians, most of them women.

Women on average are now earning $255.10 more per week than they did in May 2022, when we were elected. Labor's doing work right across the economy to lift women's pay. Closing the gender-pay gap is a key ambition of Labor's Working for women: a strategy for gender equality—the first national strategy for gender equality this nation's ever seen, I note.

While we've achieved the lowest gender-pay gap on record and the highest record of women's workforce participation, we know there is more to do, and we will keep going. We know the unequal burden of care is one of the biggest drivers of women's economic disadvantage, and that's why we've expanded paid parental leave to six months and, for the first time, we are paying superannuation on that leave.

We've made child care more affordable for more than a million families, making it possible for more women to stay in or return to work. These changes mean that caring is no longer an automatic penalty for women's economic participation and that women's retirement savings will no longer suffer because they took the time to raise their family. A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 1 1 : 59 to 12:11 Proposed expenditure agreed to.