Motions

Gender Equality

The Hon. C. BONAROS (16:48): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes that South Australia has a proud history of advancing gender equality;

2. Recognises that despite this progress, significant challenges remain, including the gender pay gap and lower levels of workforce participation for women compared to men;

3. Acknowledges that, in opposition, the now Malinauskas Labor government supported the Gender Equality Bill 2021;

4. Notes that at the second reading of the Gender Equality Bill 2022, the government did not support the bill and confirmed its plans to introduce similar legislation;

5. Notes that this commitment formed part of Labor's pre-election policy platform;

6. Observes that the South Australian Women's Equality Blueprint 2023–2026 includes as a key action the introduction of an equality bill;

7. Notes the findings of the Gender Pay Gap Taskforce, including recommendation 3, which calls for action to reduce the gender pay gap in the public sector; and

8. Calls on the government to honour its commitment and introduce a gender equality bill without further delay.

On 18 December 1894, the South Australian Parliament passed the Constitution Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act, giving women the right to vote and the right to stand for election to parliament. South Australia was the first electorate in the world to give equal political rights to both men and women. It would be another eight years before the commonwealth caught up, giving women the right to vote in federal elections through the Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902.

Here is another homegrown first: the late Dame Roma Mitchell was the first female governor of any Australian state, namely, ours. She was also the first woman in Australia to be appointed Queen's Counsel, the first in Australia to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, and the first female chancellor of an Australian university, the University of Adelaide. Dame Roma, as we all know, was a trailblazing advocate for the rights of Australian women, including equal pay.

Under Don Dunstan, SA introduced equal rights for women and passed anti-discrimination laws. He appointed the first women's adviser, Deborah McCulloch, in 1976, and through the Women's Advisory Unit legislated the Sex Discrimination Act and established the Equal Opportunities Commissioner and advisory panel. It was Don who appointed Dame Roma to the Supreme Court, and his was the first government in the world to make rape within marriage a criminal offence.

The state government established the South Australian Gender Pay Gap Taskforce in September 2022 to provide high level advice to the Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence in the South Australian government on issues related to the gender pay gap. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the gender pay gap in South Australia was, as at November 2024, still 10.1 per cent. Again, based on 2024 data, on average women have had to work 50 additional days into the new year just to earn what their male counterparts earned last year.

On the issue of domestic, family and sexual violence, that, too, as we know, is a driver of financial insecurity for women. It has been reported that 39 per cent of women in SA have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Sadly, as we know, women believe they simply cannot afford to leave an abusive relationship. We know it takes about six to eight attempts to leave one of those relationships before you actually make it out those doors.

In its final report of 2024, the task force that I referred to recognised the key drivers of the gender pay gap across Australia identified in the KPMG She's Price(d)less report and the percentages that they contribute to the gap, including gender discrimination and a systemic undervaluation of women's economic contribution at 36 per cent; women's limited participation in the workforce and women spending 81 per cent more time in unpaid work than men at 33 per cent; and gender segregation, which means more men in higher paying roles and industries such as defence and manufacturing, and more women in lower paid sectors such as early childhood education, aged care and hospitality at 24 per cent. As the task force noted:

This gap has lasting impacts on women's economic security.

The gap starts from the moment a woman enters the workforce and accumulates over a working life to a significant wealth gap by retirement.

Closing the gender pay gap is an important step for South Australia to become a fair and inclusive state in which women and girls can equally and actively participate in the economy and all aspects of community life.

The task force also found that the gender pay gap not only affects women on an individual level, it reinforces gender inequality through ongoing discrimination faced by women and the unequal distribution of power, resources and opportunities between men and women. It says research also shows that reducing the gender pay gap would result in an increase in workforce participation and productivity and add a whopping $128 billion to Australia's economy.

I have spoken in this place on lots of issues, as has my colleague the Hon. Tammy Franks and others in this place, about issues relating to gender equality and the impacts that it has, predominantly on women, and every one of those campaigns, whether it is period poverty or anything else, is supposed to demonstrate that when we target young girls at an early enough age, and we foster and nurture them, then they are more likely to not be faced with many of the battles that our mums and grandmas were faced with.

But we still find ourselves here today, in 2025, talking about things like period poverty. We still find ourselves talking about a 10.1 per cent gender pay gap in South Australia and, frankly, as I have said before, the buck stops with us, because we are the ones who are meant to set the gold standard, and we are the ones who set the bar as high as it ought to be, to ensure that every person is earning equal to their male counterparts. I would hasten to say that, outside of people working in our roles, there would be plenty—and I know, based on the commentary I get on social media, that not everyone buys this argument that women are paid less than men, but the statistics and the outcomes of those government reports that I have just referred to speak for themselves.

It is for that reason that in 2022 I introduced the bill in this place, the Gender Equality Bill, based on the Victorian model, which we know has now been tried and tested and is doing extraordinarily well under the helm of our former commissioner from here in South Australia, Niki Vincent. That bill that was proposed to establish a state gender equality commission and create an action plan to address inequities such as gender pay gaps in the public sector was rebuffed by the government. It mandated that relevant entities such as public sector agencies and councils meet equality targets set by regulation.

As I said at the time, if the issue of gender is not important enough to warrant a dedicated standalone equality commission and action plan, then I do not know what is. The opposition at the time, the current government, supported that first bill. When they came into government I reintroduced the same bill. They opposed my bill and they opposed it on the basis that they were working on their own proposal.

I have had those meetings with the government and with the minister and I know the commitments that have been given to stakeholders and industry groups outside of this place and to me in terms of the timing of that bill and they have not been met. It concerns me greatly that we are about three minutes away from an election, relatively speaking, and we have not seen a bill introduced into this place that addresses not just the commitments that this government gave, which are outlined in the motion itself, but also the recommendations of the task force, which clearly points to the need for one of these models in South Australia.

As I said, when the government knocked that bill out, after having supported it, those commitments were given and they were given on the basis that this was a priority for this government and that we would see a proposal through this side of the election. I was sceptical because I know how politics works, but I have patiently monitored the progress and I have patiently taken part in those discussions and I can tell you either the priorities have changed or something has gone wrong because, as I said, the clock is well and truly ticking and nothing of what I have discussed today has found its way before us in this place.

It is not rocket science. As I said, we set the bar and we set the standard, and in the absence of standards in the public sector there is not much to convince other businesses to invest in incentives that result in equal pay amongst genders. I am really hoping that, in response to this motion, the minister will find herself in the position to share with us some positive updates about a piece of legislation that was meant to be, and is meant to be, central to this government's commitment to gender equality.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. R.P. Wortley.