Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Ms KARA COOK (Bonner) (12:34): I rise to affirm the essential work of the Office for Women within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, which exists to advance gender equality across every part of government. The Office for Women exists to ensure that every new policy, every cabinet submission and every national priority is viewed through a gender lens, and it's working.

Since Labor came to office, we have embedded gender-responsive budgeting across the Public Service. We've brought back the Women's Budget Statement, and we're delivering policy reform that recognises and corrects the structural inequalities that women face every single day. We don't pretend that one department can solve gender inequality alone.

That's why the Office for Women works across government to influence, shape and advocate for policies that make a tangible difference in the lives of women. Since May 2022, this government has delivered over $9 billion in targeted measures to improve outcomes for women, not as an add-on, not as an afterthought but as core government policy. We are funding women's safety with $4 billion in investments to end gender based violence and $3.9 billion in legal assistance.

We have legislated 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave. We are implementing every single recommendation of the Respect@Work report. We have legislated a positive duty on employers to actively prevent harassment.

And we are reforming the justice system so that victims-survivors of sexual violence are no longer retraumatised by the very institutions meant to protect them. We also know that economic inequality is gender inequality. Women still do the majority of unpaid care.

They are overrepresented in low-paid, insecure work and they retire with far less superannuation than men. But Labor is changing that story. We've made child care cheaper, we've expanded paid parental leave and we are paying superannuation on parental leave for the first time ever.

We've delivered fairer tax cuts—90 per cent of women are better off under our plan. Women are earning $255 more per week than in 2022, and we've lifted the minimum wage, which helps those in sectors like aged care, early childhood education and health. This is how we close the gender pay gap, and, under Labor, it's now at its lowest point on record.

We also need to challenge the idea that certain jobs belong to men. Right now, only 21 per cent of occupations are gender balanced. Women are still vastly underrepresented in trades, construction and technical roles, and that's not because of capability; it's because of outdated, exclusionary systems and stereotypes that push women out before they even get started.

Labor is dismantling those barriers. Through free TAFE, we've seen an 80 per cent increase in women entering male dominated apprenticeships and a 115 per cent rise in women training as electricians. Almost 60 per cent of free TAFE students are women.

The data is clear: it's working. These are jobs with dignity, security and decent pay, and women belong in every single one of them. This year's Women's Budget Statement also highlights our $792 million investment in women's health, with dedicated endometriosis clinics, expanded menopause support, cheaper reproductive health care and new Medicare items that acknowledge women's distinct health needs.

We are now seeing the results of Labor's focus on women and the Office for Women's hard work. According to the Global gender gap report 2025, Australia has now risen 11 places in the global rankings to 13th out of 148 countries—our highest result ever. Under the coalition government, we had dropped to a shameful 50th.

That was the cost of their indifference and, at many times, outright distain for women. Last year, we celebrated 50 years of the Office for Women, which was established by the Whitlam government. It was created with the belief that gender should never determine a person's safety, salary or sense of belonging.

We fund a public service that knows gender matters, and today, on the anniversary of former prime minister Julia Gillard's misogyny speech, we reaffirm our commitment that not now, not ever, will we be lectured to by men about sexism or misogyny in this place—because we and the Labor Party are here to end it.