Same job, better pay - strong talk at the Jobs and Skills Summit

The first day of the Jobs and Skills Summit certainly included some  strong talk about women’s rights.

+ Equality Rights Alliance’s Helen Dalley-Fisher said steps needed to be taken to improve women’s workforce participation rates and pay needed to reflect the amount of work women were actually doing.

+ Safety Culture CEO Luke Anear said additional childcare funding was a “no brainer”. “No woman in Australia should be unable to work due to caring for children,” he said.

+ Teal independent MP Zoe Daniel called for all new legislation to include a gender impact statement.

+ The Australian Council of Trade Unions pushed for paid parental leave to be 52 weeks by 2030. While Labor had campaigned on investing $5.4 billion to make  childcare cheaper from July 2023, they are now under pressure to fast track the subsidies.

+ Electrical Trades Union secretary Michael Wright said reforms need to be made to workplace laws to provide more rights for women workers. “We have a gender divide that would have made the 1950s gasp,” he said. “Too often women don’t even have equal bathrooms let alone equal pay”. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers had promised to focus on women’s experiences in the labour market and ensuring women have equal opportunities and pay.

“Australians are paying too hefty a price for a decade of division, wasted opportunities and warped priorities,” he said in a statement.

“Through the summit and beyond, we are serious about bringing people together from right across the community to find common ground.”

The Summit included 30% workers and unions, 30% employers and representative and 30% experts and representatives from the community, education, employment and social sectors, and 10% from government.

In all, 143 delegates attended at Parliament House in Canberra. Among them was former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate and chief executives of companies such as Qantas and Woolworths. 

Let’s hope that talk about levelling the play field for women and people who parent, gets translated into real action.
Photo 2: Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on day one of the jobs summit. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)

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