I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
I acknowledge all my parliamentary colleagues here today.
From the very beginning of the United Nations, Australia has been a leader in the global effort to promote equality for women.
Indeed, the reason the UN Charter makes specific mention of sexual discrimination is because of a great Australian, Jessie Street.
One of just eight women among 850 delegates in San Francisco in 1945.
She told that conference:
“Where the rules are silent, women are not usually considered.”
This year’s call to “Balance the Scales” reminds us that there are still nations around the world where discrimination against women is written into the law.
That was Australia, back when married women were excluded from working in the public service.
When only widows were eligible for the single parent payment.
When there was no such thing as no-fault divorce, or the Family Court.
Those barriers didn’t fall over on their own.
Australian women organised and campaigned to bring them down.
Generations of women have made the personal, political – and delivered political change as a result.
Yet the wisdom of Jessie Street still holds true, for all of us.
Because it is not enough for the rules to be silent.
It is not enough to assume that the playing field is level and opportunity is equal, just because there is nothing in writing that says otherwise.
It is easy to talk about equality for women in principle.
What matters is advancing equality for women in practice.
That’s what the Labor Party did at our National Conference in 1994, when we adopted affirmative action.
We took a longstanding theoretical commitment to equal representation and made it something that could be measured.
In doing so, we made ourselves accountable for the outcome, not just the ambition.
I am proud to lead the first Government in Australian history with a majority of women.
We are a better party and a better government because of that fact, because the Cabinet table and the Caucus room reflect modern Australia.
And the policies and reforms that we deliver are better for the experience, empathy, intellect and leadership of Labor women.
You can trace that, right through our agenda:
Record new investments in women’s health.
Boosting the wages and bargaining power of people in aged care, child care and the other female-dominated workforces.
Abolishing the punitive Activity Test and replacing it with 3 days of guaranteed access to the child care subsidy.
Or expanding Paid Parental Leave to a full 6 months – and adding superannuation to it for the first time ever.
Our colleagues advocate for it, because they have lived it.
They know the time and energy and effort that unpaid labour demands, the sacrifices it requires.
That is why, for our Government, equality for women is not an add-on, or a nice-to-have.
It’s not confined to an individual portfolio, or treated as a matter of special interest – it is the national interest.
Greater equality for women is central to our Government’s agenda because it is fundamental to Australia’s success.
Today, the gender pay gap is at an historic low – and women’s economic participation is at record highs.
That’s the product of reforms across our economy.
Addressing the scourge of violence against women is about action across our society.
For a long time, this was an issue Australia met with silence.
Neighbours turned a blind eye.
Law enforcement was inclined to dismiss it.
Politicians didn’t talk about it.
And the media didn’t cover it.
The courage and leadership of Australian women has helped us cross a national threshold on awareness.
We speak honestly about the devastation violence inflicts on women, children, families and communities.
The lives that violence scars – and the lives it steals.
The test for our generation, for all of us, is action and outcomes.
That’s why one of the first laws we passed in 2022 was establishing 10 Days Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave, because no-one should have to choose between their safety and their job.
We are boosting the supply of crisis accommodation and affordable housing.
And we have expanded the Leaving Violence Program, providing financial and practical support to help people get back on their feet in a new home.
Because too often women are trapped in violent households because they have no means of getting out – and nowhere to go.
At the same time, we are taking tougher and more targeted action against perpetrators.
Making sure that our social security, tax and superannuation system cannot be abused by perpetrators as tools for coercive control.
And that our courts and legal system serve as instruments of justice, not trauma.
We are also putting a new focus on preventing violence, rather than waiting until it escalates.
Including early intervention for young men, to break the cycle of abuse.
Because one of the great evils of family violence is that its victims can grow up to become perpetrators.
When we consider this year’s call to ‘Balance the Scales’, we understand there is no single act, no one reform that will do it.
Balancing the scales will take the combined weight of economic and social and legal change, new investments in housing and health and education, better resources for frontline services, better training and awareness for law enforcement.
It will take all of that – and it will take all of us. Women and men.
Because men have a responsibility here – to talk with our sons and our mates.
To be accountable for the culture we are part of, the standard and example we set.
Greater equality for women is a test of our national character – and we will meet it by staying true to our national character.
By trusting in our Australian values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all, by investing in our people and their capacity.
And just as Australia led the way in 1945 – we can show the way in the years ahead.