Sophie Mirabella: International Women’s Day

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Women and Youth) Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the statement by the Minister for the Status of Women on International Women’s Day. I am delighted to have the opportunity to join with the minister in acknowledging International Women’s Day, which of course was last Sunday, 8 March. Australian women do indeed have much of which they can be proud. They have certainly come a long way in the last 100 years. I take this opportunity to applaud the women who are still struggling today in various parts of our nation, within various communities, whether it be in Indigenous communities or in the workforce or in a multitude of other forums in which they are struggling to improve the lot of women generally. Often they are silent volunteers, working hard because of a passion that drives them.

We are all beneficiaries of the efforts of many women who have gone before us. At the same time, however, we should acknowledge that there are many women around the world who do not enjoy the same freedoms that we do. They are denied a proper education, they are not free to make their own decisions, and the laws in their countries do not protect them from violence and abuse. Their position is quite literally worse than that of women in this country more than 100 years ago.

I do not doubt that the minister’s interest and passion in the area of gender equality are genuine, and I thank her for representing the interests of Australian women in such an august forum as the United Nations. But I think it would be a pretty safe bet that last Sunday most Australian women were too busy with their regular weekend activities, preparing for the working week ahead and/or spending time with family and friends to remember that it was International Women’s Day. It is likely an even safer bet that the last thing on their minds as they sat down to Sunday brunch was Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s statements and his crew in Canberra. But it is instructive on this occasion, when women’s issues are highlighted and women’s achievement celebrated, to take stock of exactly how the Rudd government has fared when it comes to delivering on their pre-election commitments to Australian women.

Looking at the big issues that have been nominated by the government, like paid maternity leave, prevention of violence against women and child care, it is safe to say that Labor’s record on these is a microcosm of their approach to government over the last 16 months. It is best summed up as committees, reports, task forces, delays, indecision and, unfortunately, disappointment. I would like to look more closely at some of the issues that the minister addressed at the UN in her speech in March and which she has again reiterated today in the parliament. She stated that Australia is pursuing three key priority areas for advancing gender equality. They are: improving women’s outcomes and financial independence; ensuring women’s voices are heard at all levels of decision making; and reducing violence against women. These three areas are of importance to women in their quest to close the gender gap, but, unfortunately, on closer examination it is quite clear that this Labor government does not leave much to cheer about.

Improving women’s economic outcomes and financial independence is in fact a critical and important objective, but economic outcomes and financial independence often start with the security of a job—whether it is that of the woman herself, her partner or the family on which she relies. The day the current government comes into this chamber and says that they have a real plan for jobs is the day they will have done something to assist women in their advancement to obtaining economic security and relieving them of some of those economic concerns.

The minister highlighted in her speech to the UN that Australia’s maternity payment is equivalent to about nine weeks of the minimum wage and assists with the extra costs incurred at the time of birth or adoption of a child. She spoke of it in glowing terms. I am disappointed, however, that she failed to acknowledge that this enlightened initiative was introduced by the Howard government, albeit under a different name. She also failed to acknowledge that some of her colleagues were not so supportive of such a scheme at the time. In fact, the member for Rankin said in the House on 23 May 2007 in relation to the baby bonus:

I cannot for the life of me understand how any government could come up with such a scheme.

I am pleased, however, that the minister herself can and has publicly acknowledged the Howard government’s initiative in this area.

As to the government’s action on paid maternity leave, I am afraid that the news is not so good. The minister informed the UN of the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into a paid maternity leave scheme but failed to inform UN members that, as reported in the Courier Mail on 23 February 2009:

Senior Ministers have been privately warning interest groups the $40 billion hole in the Government’s budget will make it too difficult to fund the proposed $450 million scheme in this May’s budget.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was talking tough in September last year when he said that it was time to ‘bite the bullet’ on paid maternity leave. At the same time, the Treasurer also said:

We’ve had 12 years of neglect on this, it’s time Australia bit the bullet on paid maternity leave.

They seem to biting bullets all the time but achieving nothing. Even Sharan Burrows said on the ACTU website last November:

The ACTU, unions and thousands of Australian families call on the Rudd Government to include the Productivity Commission’s proposed scheme in the 2009 Federal Budget as a matter of urgency.

Now it is a very different story from this self-styled champion of women. Just last week, as she sniffed the wind and saw that her Labor colleagues were furiously back-pedalling, the ACTU President was quoted in the media as saying:

If it needs to be phased in over a couple of years, that’s a discussion that can be had, but don’t make women wait.

So there is a bit of back-pedalling to support the changed federal Labor policy. Four months ago it was a matter of urgency and now it is fine for us to have a bit of a discussion.

But even Sharan Burrows would probably acknowledge—if only privately—that neither Kevin Rudd or Wayne Swan has made a tough decision since coming to office, and they are quick to blame others when it comes to failing to meet their election promises. Given December’s $10 billion cash splash and the $42 billion spending package announced last month, the coalition has every right to be sceptical of the Rudd government’s ability to deliver on its election commitment of paid maternity leave. With such poor economic management and the racking up of $200 billion debt, it does look increasingly likely that the Rudd government will walk away from its commitment to support families and blame everyone else but themselves. In fact, the Rudd government is so sensitive on this issue that it has gone into hiding and refused to publicly release the final report of the Productivity Commission, which was given to it last week. But did Minister Plibersek include these details in her address? No, she did not.

The minister also told the UN that the government was improving the quality, cost and availability of child care. But did she inform them of the current problems in the childcare industry? No, she did not. Did she inform them that while in opposition she and her colleagues screamed for vacancy data to be released so that those involved in the industry could strategically plan where centres are in critical shortage and where there is an oversupply? I very much doubt it, as the last time such information was released was in April 2007 under the previous government. It is now almost 16 months since the Rudd government came to office and it refuses to release such figures. And where do I even begin to start when it comes to the collapse of ABC Learning? Labor’s incompetence in handling this issue is legendary throughout the industry. People will tell you privately that they are too afraid to name themselves in the media and discuss it because they are afraid of the retribution that will inevitably follow. This has only added to the stress of families and working mothers and fathers around the nation.

Then there was Labor’s election promise to ‘end the dreaded double drop-off’ by building 260 new childcare centres in schools and on public land across the country. What has happened so far? It has taken 16 months, but plans are now underway to build six of these centres. The federal government has budgeted $114 million to build a total of 38 centres over the next four years. The fate of the remaining 222 centres that Kevin Rudd firmly promised apparently rests with the states and territories in COAG, and we all know what a parlous position state Labor’s economic mismanagement has left the states in. Now federal Labor is passing the buck to the states.

Labor’s big promise of universal access to preschool for all four-year-olds has similarly been sent to COAG to be discussed by yet another task force and to be eventually implemented over four years. In the meantime, New South Wales parents are still paying exorbitant fees and the community preschool sector faces collapse due to funding pressures. But at least Labor has a task force in place!

A very interesting article in the Courier-Mail reports that the Rudd government is giving $252 million to the Bligh Queensland government, in the middle of an election campaign, to help fund the building of 240 new kindergartens around that state by 2014. Firstly, I make it clear that the coalition welcomes any initiative that genuinely benefits Australian children, particularly in the area of early childhood development and education. But we should be highly sceptical about an announcement in the middle of a state election campaign, to the tune of $252 million, when the Labor Party cannot come up with any funding for a paid parental leave scheme about which it has built such high expectations. Given that the federal government has, to date, been unable to get no more than six of its 260 childcare centres which it promised off the ground, my hopes for the Queensland government building 240 kindergartens by 2014 are virtually non-existent.

I welcome the government’s promise of a national action plan to reduce violence against women and children, which was sent to a newly formed council. The council has been working hard, going around the country, consulting and genuinely working on what is hoped will be a practical national plan. It recently asked the government for an extension of the December 2008 deadline and it is due to report this month. That is fair enough.

But let us look at what Labor did in the meantime. They callously cancelled the highly effective ‘Violence against women—Australia says no’ public education campaign and they have put nothing in its place. So we have, effectively, had a 16-month vacuum when it comes to public education on violence against women. That is not good enough. I am sure that it is not something that the Minister for Housing included in her address to the UN and, given the collective $52 billion Labor have spent in recent months—(Time expired)