QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for Social Services) (14:22): I want to thank the member for Jagajaga for her question. I know what a huge supporter she is of the social and community sector workers who do so much work in her electorate. Today, the government announced a historic $630 million investment in the wages of some of our most important workers.
In my portfolio, the extra funding means more support for 500 organisations that deliver supports to 1½ million vulnerable Australians every year. They're the people who pick up the phone in the middle of the night when a woman and her kids are trying to escape from domestic violence. They're the people who work at the Salvos or Vinnies, helping put food on the table when people are doing it tough.
They're the workers who help a homeless kid find a place to live that's safe, get back to school and get into the workforce. They're the people who will be helping someone with a disability find and keep a job they love. They're the people who will help a kid who's grown up in a home where they've only ever known violence or trauma recover from that and have a decent life.
They're the people who will help someone with their finances if they're in debt when they're problem gambling. These are the very best people in the world. The people who are doing this work do it because they love it.
They do it because they care for their fellow Australians. They are the very best people in the world, but they also deserve to be able to put food on the table. They deserve a pay rise, and the simple truth is that the reason so many of these workers have been underpaid for so long is that this work has predominantly been done by women, and they've done it from love for their fellow human being.
But that is not an excuse to keep underpaying them. I'm so pleased that we are able to say today that these workers will have the pay rises that they deserve, a contribution made by the Commonwealth government. As the minister for industrial relations said earlier, this is a really important step in continuing to reduce the gender pay gap in Australia.
We've got the lowest gender pay gap on record, and I congratulate the minister and the Minister for Women for the incredible contribution they've made to lowering that gap and to making sure that we are now eighth in the world for gender equality, up from a low of 50th under those opposite when they were in government. We will continue to support higher wages for the people who are doing this important, meaningful, complex and consequential work, because they deserve nothing less.