QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms CATHERINE KING (Ballarat—Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) (14:43): I give a shout-out to Maggie from Ballarat. Apologies for the juvenile behaviour we just saw. I thank the member for Canberra for her question.

I particularly want to acknowledge her for the work that she does in this place, advocating for her constituents but also advocating for women, while she balances work and family life. It's a really familiar story. Striking the right balance between work and family is something that families across the country have to do each and every single day.

Every family will make the choice that is right for them, and that choice shouldn't come with a financial penalty on top. Caring now shouldn't mean financial insecurity in your retirement. Missing out on super to have kids adds up and, on average, women approaching retirement have 26 per cent less superannuation than men of the same age.

That's why the government has reformed the Paid Parental Leave scheme to ensure parents can have more time off and more money. We've also expanded paid parental leave to six months, and, as of July last year, parents receive superannuation on their paid parental leave. It is a crucial reform, and it will matter for women in retirement.

It will help close that super gap between Australian men and women. It is great news for families, and it's just one of the ways we're supporting women and their superannuation. We're reforming the low-income super tax offset to support low-income women to save more for their retirement, and we've introduced payday super to support earlier, more frequent employer super contributions.

All of this, of course, builds on the progress that we are making in lifting wages and closing the gender pay gap now at a historic low of 11.3 per cent. That is how we make sure that women have economic choices and that they can live with dignity in their retirement. Labor built superannuation, and we're strengthening it to ensure that working women are better off in their retirement.

But, in the last week alone, we know we have seen the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation again go back to form and threaten the existence of superannuation. They have described superannuation as a loss of liberty, they have confirmed they do not support universal contributions and they've bragged about their past policies. They would seek to start dismantling the superannuation scheme.

That would see people with thousands of dollars less in their retirement incomes. That will particularly affect women. Make no mistake; the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation have never, ever supported a universal superannuation scheme.

They don't support it. They don't like it. They've attempted, at every opportunity, to undermine it, and, if they're given the chance, that is exactly what they will do again.

And the people who actually suffer as a result of that will primarily be Australian women on their retirement.