QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms RISHWORTH (Kingston—Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) (14:13): I thank the member for Whitlam for her question and her commitment to improving the wages of working women. Since our government came to office, we have focused on improving gender equality in this country. That is why we put gender equality at the heart of the Fair Work Act, which has allowed the Fair Work Commission to consider historic gender undervaluation across female-dominated industries.
The commission's recent decision highlighted that frontline health and community support workers, many of which are women, have not been recognised for the important work they do. These workers deserve to be properly recognised for the highly skilled and demanding work they do in supporting some of the most vulnerable members in our community, and the Fair Work Commission has done this with its decision to award pay increases to many of these workers.
Today, the Albanese government has announced that we will provide funding to organisations that directly provide services on behalf of the Commonwealth to deliver these pay rises. This support is critical to ensuring that organisations can continue delivering critical services while providing pay increases for these hardworking Australians. This morning, I had the pleasure to meet with Sarah, who will benefit from this investment.
Sarah said that she and her co-workers have been undervalued for too long and that this must change. I'm proud to be part of a government that is delivering that change for workers like Sarah. Workers like Sarah deserve a government that backs them.
Today's announcement builds on our decision to fund pay increases for workers in aged care and early childhood, many of whom are women. Closing the gender pay gap has been a key focus of this Labor government. I'm pleased to update the House that we are making progress, with the gender pay gap at a record low.
This progress hasn't happened by accident. It's the result of a government that is determined to prioritise gender equality. It comes as no surprise, though, that the biggest threat to supporting working women is those opposite.
They did absolutely nothing when they were last in government to advance gender equality in this country. Of course, the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation all voted against our laws that put gender equality as a key objective of the Fair Work Act. It is only this Labor government that is focused on supporting working women in this country and delivering the pay increases they deserve.