Thank you, N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs, for welcoming us so beautifully onto Boon Wurrung Country.
I would also like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respect to the Elders past and present, and extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today.
I want to acknowledge the strength and leadership of First Nations women in Australia – who are leaders in their communities, holders of knowledge and fierce advocates for equality.
I also welcome Nanise Bale Kamikamica, here representing the Fiji Teachers Association. Bula vinaka.
Australia deeply values being part of the Pacific family, and our close and enduring friendship, guided by Australia and Fiji’s Vuvale Partnership.
I know Prime Minister Albanese was honoured to join other Pacific Leaders in Honiara for the Pacific Islands Forum earlier this month.
And he stood with other leaders, including Fiji’s PM Rabuka, in declaring the Blue Pacific an Ocean of Peace, calling on the international community to respect Pacific-led approaches to peace and security.
I acknowledge AEU Federal President, Correna Haythorpe, and to all of the union officials, state and territory officials, AEU members, staff, small people – lovely to see you. Thank you for asking me to say a few words at this really important conference.
I know you’re talking a lot about gendered violence and the language of a safe, respected, and equal. These words are really important to focus on.
And I think there was a time when words like these would be universally endorsed across the country as something we should all expect in our workplaces, or in relation to equality, something we should continue to work for.
But that’s not necessarily the case right now. Pushback is real, and this is a space where we need to be in the contest and pushback against the pushback.
The pushback against the pushback, if you like.
Teachers see the impact of some of these trends before anyone else. Teachers are at the coalface of many of challenges facing women that exist across the community, perhaps more frequently now because of the rise of misogynistic online content.
You're seeing these dynamics play out between students, and you’re also experiencing them yourselves.
Which is why today’s theme, ‘Safe. Respected. Equal.’ couldn’t be more appropriate.
You know as well as I do that a lot needs to change to make safe, respected and equal the norm for women in classrooms and workplaces across Australia.
You see it in the treatment of teachers, the misogyny and the disrespect that so many women teachers are experiencing, speaking out about, and, for others, leaving a profession they love because of it.
And you see it in how some young men treat women teachers and their female peers.
As Minister for Women the issue of how we ensure respect and safety for women and promote greater gender equality across the economy is at the heart of everything I do, and it’s also at the centre of the Albanese Government’s social and economic policies.
We want to use every lever we have available to us to drive gender equality in Australia.
In classrooms.
In workplaces.
In boardrooms.
In public discourse.
In sports, entertainment and the arts.
We made some progress in our first term, and we will continue this in our second. And we do this because we know a gender equal Australia is good for everyone.
Ending violence against women and children is good for everyone.
Treating people with respect is good for everyone, not just at a community level, but at a whole of economy level.
So, I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity to say a few words today, as over the past two decades I've had a fair bit to do with Australia's education system.
First as Minister for Education in the ACT, and then as Chief Minister, when Gonski and needs-based funding was first being negotiated more than a decade ago.
It was as the ACT Minister for Education that I learned the hard way to work with and alongside the AEU, and not against it.
Former Secretary Clive Haggar taught me that the power of the AEU was its membership, and that they were always right! By the time I left that portfolio, Clive and I had been through enough dramas together that we had become quite good friends and I still think of him often.
Now in my Federal role, I have worked with Jason Clare on the National Schools Agreement which landed just before the election – a historic agreement that will ensure public education is resourced appropriately and on a student’s needs basis.
A vision and an outcome that the AEU have been fighting for for decades, so congratulations to you all for that important achievement.
But perhaps my most enduring exposure to Australia's public education system, apart from being a proud product of it, has been as a parent.
I have three very different children, and as parents, Dave and I wanted our children educated in the public system.
All followed the same path through schools in Canberra: Turner Primary, Lyneham High and Dickson college for years 11 and 12.
Two very academic children with different interests, and one child with several learning challenges. By the time my youngest child graduates from year 12 in a couple of months, I will have been a public-school parent for 24 years.
My children have benefitted hugely from their experiences at public schools, and I know it has prepared them well for the world beyond school life.
And for this I must thank the teachers who have helped shape them, cajoled them, encouraged them, spent time with them and got through to them when we, as parents, couldn’t.
I referred earlier to the strength of the AEU and its membership – the teachers – and what a formidable, and sometimes scary, union it can be.
What record of achievement in campaigns you have led on teacher pay, conditions, on workplace safety, on advocating for your students and their rights to a quality public education.
And for your defence of public education and the importance of the public system leading the way for all students.
We cannot ever allow the public system to become the system you only attend if you can’t afford a private school.
This matters, just like Medicare matters, just like access to superannuation and the pension – universal, quality, and enduring across generations.
So thank you as a parent and as a Minister, for the role that each of you, as teachers, as activists and as women have played in those campaigns – often fought over many years, if not decades, and some still underway.
And women members do, and always have, formed the majority membership of the AEU. You’ve fought the fight to professionalise, for better pay, and better conditions.
Teaching remains one of those industries that remains female dominated, with over 75 per cent of teachers being women.
And we know that one of the structural drivers of gender inequality can be found in our highly segregated labour market. Jobs and Skills Australia recently released a report with the following key findings:
- That only one in five workers work in gender-balanced occupations,
- That almost 70 per cent of occupations have retained the same level of gender segregation over the last 15 years,
- And that occupation shortages typically worsen as gender segregation intensifies.
Some areas of teaching and early education are more female dominated than others, and this report which used 2021 Census data found that:
- Of early childhood educators, 97.6 per cent are women,
- Of primary teachers, 85.1 per cent are women,
- The same for special education teachers,
- While high school teaching is more balanced, with 62.2 per cent women.
This report also found that despite significant effort across the economy to encourage more women into male dominated occupations and vice versa, that over the last 15 years, in 70 per cent of occupations the level of gender segregation remained unchanged, 12 per cent got worse, and 12 per cent improved.
Now, these are sobering findings on one hand. But on the other, a reminder that there are other factors at play when people make decisions about the jobs they want to do.
Gendered norms, balancing unpaid care, workplace culture, employment structures, recruitment practices, career paths, and workplace conditions all play a role.
And the good news, perhaps, is as a government we are trying to deal with all of these factors one way or another.
For example – the IR changes made to the Fair Work Act to insert gender equality as an objective under the Act are for the first time empowering the Fair Work Commission to look at gender undervaluation through that case to put a price on the cost of not paying women’s work fairly.
The aged care wage increases almost instantly dealt with retention problems in the sector, and also began attracting more men into aged care jobs. Go figure.
On workplace culture, by accepting every recommendation of the Respect at Work report – including the positive duty for employers – sends a strong message about our view on the seriousness of appropriate workplace culture and protection from sexual harassment in workplaces.
And we didn’t just send a message – we changed the law.
Workplace flexibility – something that teachers and the AEU have led the way on – are also becoming must haves in a workplace rather than a nice to have in the global race for labour.
Governments can and should lead on these things and dismantle the structural barriers that work against gender equality.
Under the Albanese Government, the Women’s Portfolio which I proudly hold is not a single portfolio fighting for attention.
A better deal for women is considered an economic and social policy priority.
It’s incorporated into everything we do and all the decisions we take, whether it’s some of those areas I’ve already mentioned and for which the union movement championed – by putting gender equality at the heart of our workplace relations system with our Fair Work reforms.
Or the pay rises secured for care economy workers.
Or adding superannuation to paid parental leave.
Or expanding PPL to six months.
Or publishing gender pay gaps at the employer level.
These are all reforms that were put off and not prioritised. We have dealt with them in our first term, and importantly they are structural changes that are built to last.
All these reforms have enjoyed the support and leadership of the Australian union movement, which has of course been the loudest and strongest voice for women workers across this country.
With our peak union body, the ACTU, led by two incredible women in Sally McManus and Michele O’Niel, and your own union leadership in Correna Haythorpe and Nicole Calnan, and in the state and territory officials.
And when I think about all that we have achieved together in just over three years in government, reforms like guaranteeing eligible families can receive at least three days of subsidised early childhood education and care without judgement, building more childcare centres in areas of need, paying student teachers while they’re on mandatory placements, and funding public schools properly.
Fourteen years after the Gonski Review identified the Schooling Resourcing Standard, we’re making that standard a reality.
With new agreements struck with all states and territories, every Commonwealth dollar spent on schools during this term will be linked to real reform, and I know how closely Jason Clare has worked with the union on shaping that deal.
This is as it should be. Government working with unions and other stakeholders to make a better, fairer and more productive Australia.
But before I finish up, let me say a few words about what’s next for the Albanese Government – particularly as it relates to women.
Well, in short, we still have a lot to do. The vision of a gender equal Australia is our North Star.
We want to see better valuing of feminised industries like teaching and caring.
We want to close the retirement income gender gap that robs many women of financial security in retirement.
We want to end gendered violence which still is way too prevalent in our country, including in places of education.
I know that this is something your teachers passionately fight for. Hearing that almost a third of your members in Queensland, for example, report experiencing gendered violence at work is simply unacceptable.
The examples of verbal and physical abuse reported in the media are harrowing.
And it goes without saying that the internet and digital technologies have revolutionised teaching and learning in positive ways, but as we are reading and learning about, clearly there are significant downsides too.
Way too frequently we are seeing what is happening at a societal level play out in your classrooms.
And we know these pressures are growing.
Gendered violence and the harms being caused by access to new technologies, including AI deepfakes, is just one of the areas that will be looked at in the anti-bullying rapid review that is currently underway.
Because it goes without saying that everyone, staff and students, should be safe at school.
We will continue working with your union and state and territory governments to make that a reality.
As a government, we recognise the load that teachers carry before school, during school and after school.
Finding solutions to these challenges is not the responsibility of teachers. It’s a whole of community problem that demands whole of community resolve.
Whether it’s through my work as Minister for women, or Jason’s work as Minister for Education, or Jess Walsh’s work as Minister for Early Education and Care – let me assure you the safety of, and respect for, teachers working with state and territory governments will be front and centre for the Albanese Government.
And we will work closely and proudly with your union as we build a gender equal Australia.
Thank you.