Days after Sam Mostyn’s address at the National Press Club, her calls for the “incredible opportunity” available in women through smart policy are still ringing true.
Especially as we consider continuing critical skill shortages across the care sector, as well as the forecasted workers we’ll need for contending with areas like the renewable energy transition, and today’s AUKUS submarine deal announcement which will require thousands of skilled workers.
To meet the challenges ahead, Australia simply must throw everything at tapping into the full potential of the population, and paying and supporting it fairly.
Mostyn’s address came as the Albanese Government released its Status of Women report card last week.
She said there is no overnight fix for equality. It will take “decades of work” requiring a staged and transparent approach. It’s also “not an equation whereby if women gain, men somehow lose.”
Indeed, there are no losers in identifying and addressing opportunities to fix gender inequality. Rather, we all gain potential and opportunity.
Mostyn described gender inequality as not merely being about holding women back, but also a brake on the economy and our progress as a country.
“As we enter much more difficult economic conditions, the full utilisation of one of the most educated, energetic and capable cohorts — women— has never been more important, and we know women want that opportunity,” she said.
And if you can’t care about the rights of women? Then at least consider the future of the economy, especially as the Prime Minister, Treasure and Minister for Women opened their October 2022 budget by stating that “we cannot reach our potential as a nation unless we deal with gender equality.”
Mostyn spoke of the possibilities in “smart policy” for unlocking the “multiple contributions of women in Australian society, including as people, partners, parents, employees, entrepreneurs, employers and change-makers.”
She said such possibilities include unlocking their skills across all these areas ,but also in providing them with the “visibility, confidence and skills and opportunity they need to maximise their economic contribution.”
Imagine that? Unlocking all these people for the very best in innovation, in leadership and ideas, and enabling the support and opportunity to also be the best possible people we all can be.
Imagining such things is not about imagining a future impossible utopia. Rather it’s about imagining a future that can meet the current challenges of our time. Challenges that require care as much as they require innovation. Challenges that require equity and the need to eliminate poverty and violence against women and children, as much as they require skills and workforce participation.
Mostyn proposed a number of “smart” policy reforms that are hardly controversial or even that difficult to achieve. In assessing their cost, it’s important to put such figures in the context of the overall goal of the “opportunity ahead”.
Such ideas include providing better support to single-parent households, removing the childcare activity tests and backing a universal, high-quality early education and care system, as well as reforming paid parental leave to include superannuation payments.
As Chair of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, Mostyn urged for equality and equity to be front and centre in the upcoming May budget, the second from the Albanese Government.
One of the more significant recommendations Mostyn shared is to restore single-parent payments for women with children over eight years old. These payments were axed under the Gillard Government and, as we’ve heard from women affected, have resulted in more single mothers being driven into poverty, as well as more single mothers being forced out of pursuing education and other opportunities for gaining further skills and qualifications.
Mostyn also addressed the urgent need for a pay rise for all early childhood educators to recognise their work, but also the urgent need to retain and attract workers in the sector.
Mostyn reflected back on economist Danielle Wood’s excellent speech at the Jobs and Skills Summit back in September 2022, where Wood stated: “I can’t help but reflect that if untapped women’s workforce participation was a massive ore deposit, we would have governments lining up to give tax concessions to get it out of the ground.”
As Mostyn said on Thursday, they wanted to focus on women experiencing the “greatest disadvantage and vulnerability” in Australia and suggest “urgent reform and immediate budget priorities”
They will further open space for work to be designed for and by First Nations commission. So that within the gender equality strategy, “there is now time and space to consult and develop that work in a culturally appropriate manner, and we will build on the important work already undertaken by so many First Nation women leaders.”
“We intend to ensure our report and recommendations create a legacy – not a neglected, dusty report on the shelf to be cited in a decade or so,” Mostyn said.
“Most of the things that we have identified will require decades of work and we’re not shy about that, because delivering on enduring outcomes will require building on these outcomes year after year, in a staged, transparent, and measurable way,” Mostyn said.
Can we do it, are we willing? The Albanese government was willing to establish this taskforce to make recommendations on achieving economic equality and appoint Mostyn as Chair. It was willing to issue an urgent plea on gender equality in the October 2022 budget. It’s talking the talk, the next step is to fund it with real, intentional policy decisions.
Given the many ambitious goals ahead for the future of this country, we have no other choice.
Stats to note from Sam Mostyn’s Press Club speech
- 80% of single-person families are single mothers
- Single women make up the majority of rent assistance recipients
- The gender pay gap starts immediately after graduation, with women earning less than men
- More than half (51%) of Australian women experience sexual violence in their 20s.
- Women account for 96.6% of hours worked by child carers
- Women do 86.9% of the hours worked ny registered nurses
- Women do 79.9% of the hours worked by primary school teachers
- A mother experiences a 55% drop in earnings in the five years following childbirth – while a father’s income remains unchanged
- Australia was ranked 43rd of 146 countries in the world Economic Forum global gender gap index.” – Mostyn said, quoting from the opening remarks of th October budget.