FAUZIAH IBRAHIM, HOST: Joining us now is Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us this morning, Minister.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR WOMEN: Thanks for having me on.
IBRAHIM: Okay, so let’s celebrate the positive here. We’re seeing that there is a narrowing of the gender pay gap, we’re seeing more women in Parliament than ever, we’re seeing Australia’s gender parity ranking has improved globally as well. Are you satisfied with how far Australia has come in regards to gender equality?
GALLAGHER: Thanks for having me on, Fauziah. Well, I think the message is we’re making substantial progress, really good progress, in a whole range of areas. But there is definitely more work to be done. So, we can’t take our eye off this push to equality and to push to make sure that women get the same opportunities as men, particularly in areas like women’s safety. But in a lot of other areas, we are seeing very good progress.
IBRAHIM: I want to get to women’s safety in just a moment, but something I read was 90 per cent of Australian employers have a policy supporting gender equality. With what’s happening in the White House at the moment, the Trump administration trying to roll back some of these diversity and inclusivity programs, do you see corporate Australia perhaps adopting the same sort of trend down the line?
GALLAGHER: Well, I haven’t seen it since the new administration came in, and we have laws in Australia around reporting for workplace gender equality reasons. And so, any company in Australia will have to abide by those, obviously. And that gives us a whole range of data, really important data, around what’s happening in companies, what people are being paid, what the gender pay gap is, and if there is a gender pay gap, really what companies are doing to close that gender pay gap. And we’ve seen just in the last year from publishing those gender pay, company-level, individual business level – we’ve seen a big improvement in those companies’ efforts to close their gender pay gaps. So, it shows it’s working, and I think women are the beneficiaries in terms of the pay they get, but also, we know it’s good for the whole economy.
IBRAHIM: Alright, so the economic outlook for women seems to be improving at this stage, but it doesn’t seem to be the case though when it comes to gendered violence, does it? We’re still seeing the number of women being killed by men is still quite high, and we’re constantly looking for a solution to this problem. What are your thoughts on this?
GALLAGHER: That’s right. I mean, women’s safety or violence against women perpetrated by men remains probably the number one issue in stalling our quest for equality, because it doesn’t just affect that woman and her family in terms of violence and physical harm, it affects a whole range of other areas in her life. And so, dealing with this is a number one priority for us. And I think if there was one solution to it, we would have all jumped on it. I think the idea is that we have to come from every which way, so it’s certainly law enforcement, police, the way the courts deal with matters of violence against women and families, support services, options for women to leave, and, importantly, education for men and boys and respect for women, pushing respect for women across Australia. It remains a huge challenge. And all of us, every single one of us has a job to play there.
IBRAHIM: Minister, I want to move away from gendered violence and from gender parity to talk about the WA elections which happened yesterday. Of course, Labor, you know, won a third straight term. However, we did notice that the Greens and independents did perform better. Do you think that trend will be passed on to the Federal Election that we’re expected to be called any day now?
GALLAGHER: Well, it’s always hard to extrapolate from state campaigns to federal campaigns. I would like to congratulate Roger Cook and his team for a remarkable victory and an important one for the people of WA. It’s great to see, they’ve obviously lent their support behind the plans that Roger Cook has and his team for WA. And obviously, we work very closely with the Premier and are pleased to see him returned. It remains to be seen – I mean, I think the federal campaign, we take nothing for granted, it’s going to be close, we’re going to have to campaign hard and continue to explain our message and I think, you know, we’ll see what happens. Obviously, the focus has been on South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, not elections. But yesterday in WA – we welcome that outcome.
IBRAHIM: Alright, Minister Katy Gallagher, we thank you so much for sharing your time this morning.
GALLAGHER: Thank you very much.