GREG JENNETT, HOST: It's a story we've been following closely today but the Government will have something of a fight on its hands with the CFMEU and the opposition, and are on the way to legislating an administrator to the CFMEU. I spoke to Assistant Minister for Social Security and Women Kate Thwaites earlier. Kate Thwaites, it is great to have you back with us now as an Assistant Minister. I should say congratulations right off the top and I will do that with the promise to come to some of your assistant minister portfolio responsibilities in just a moment. Can I take you to the developing story of the day with your colleague, Murray Watt, signalling that legislation will in fact be introduced to put the CFMEU into administration, that set of laws will come forward next week. The current national secretary Zach Smith has this afternoon come out and accused the Government of acting in bad faith and jumping the gun. Are you prepared for an industrial backlash on construction sites as the Government now takes this on?
KATE THWAITES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY, AGEING AND WOMEN: I think the actions that the Minister has announced today are the necessary actions. It has been clear that the CFMEU hasn't consented to an administrator being appointed so what the Minister has said is he will bring a bill to Parliament to allow that to happen and of course that is about the actions of one division of this union and it is about making sure that that union is in the best possible place to represent its workers and ultimately that is what unions are there for. I’m very confident the bill the Minister will be bringing to Parliament next week is the bill that we need, for the action that is needed.
HOST: Could it turn nasty?
THWAITES: I don't think so. Greg I think what we have here is the Government taking necessary actions to make sure that the interests of workers are looked after, to make sure as we have said all along, to be really clear that there is no place for criminality or that type of behaviour in the union movement. That is what is happening and that is the bill that the Minister will bring to Parliament next week to allow for an administrator to be appointed.
HOST: I'm sure there will be further discussion on that around this place when you return next week. As I say, in a slightly altered role from here on, Assistant Minister for Social Security, for Ageing and for Women. Why don't we start in that latter portfolio area, the childcare wage subsidies announced yesterday and spruiked again by the Prime Minister, who is out in Perth today. What criticism has been made of it by the Coalition and I should add they don't seem outright opposed to it, is that 15% top up, is finite or time-limited. Why is that and what is going to happen at the end of the two years of this top-up scheme?
THWAITES: This pay rise is long overdue. 15% for our early educators and I must say, for me this morning as I dropped my small boy off, I had a great chat with some of the educators there about just what a difference this is going to make, about how important the work they do is. I get to see that every day. The professionalism, the dedication that they bring, setting our next generation up in the way they should be and of course in a heavily feminised industry and in an industry that has for too long been underpaid and undervalued. That is what this is about. Of course we once again see the opposition and Peter Dutton quibbling about it. I don't think we have seen a positive proposition for Australian women or for Australian workers that Peter Dutton hasn't wanted to say no to. This Government has shown we are prepared to support Australian women in early education as we did with aged care workers, heavily feminised industries, to get the pay that they deserve, to recognise the work they are doing, it is certainly not work that Peter Dutton and the Liberals did when they were in government and they are now quibbling with it and looking to say no once again.
HOST: Will someone come along to extend or even replace this arrangement announced yesterday? Obviously it's designed, I think it's given away in its title - as an interim measure. But what is it that comes next to maintain the elevated pay levels announced?
THWAITES: The work our Government has been doing in child care, in early childhood education, has really been around recognising what are foundational pieces of our economy and our community. For too long, we did have the attitude this was babysitting, something off to the side. In fact what it is, highly qualified workers providing an early education to our next generation. Largely women working in that space. But also then allowing other women to participate in the workforce. So, all of those considerations are things we've been looking at as we look to support this sector and of course we have already reduced fees with our cheaper child care measures, now we're supporting workers. And into the future, we have asked the Productivity Commission to look at the sector and look at what comes next. So that we build an early education sector here in Australia that is good for Australians, for Australian children, Australian families, Australian women, but good for all of us, Greg, into the future.
HOST: Does that become a second term agenda? That which flows from the Productivity Commission? We had Jason Clare on the program saying we'll release that report very soon. Then what? A set of announcements you'll take to the election, will you?
THWAITES: Jason and Anne and the Prime Minister and Katy and so many are doing great work in this space. I'm going to say that two weeks into the new role they haven't given me a whole heap of new announcements that we'll be taking to the election. I go back to the point that as a Government we have demonstrated since we came into office our commitment to this sector and to the Australian women who work in this sector. The Australian women who rely on this sector. Greg, harking back to my own experience again, I've been in that position of so many Australian women, you get the text through the day, saying, sorry, we have sickness among staff, we're over ratioed, can you come and pick up your kid? Because the sector has been precarious, workers have been underpaid, so we need to be supporting these workers to make sure we have the early education system they deserve into the future.
HOST: Can I pick up something with you Kate, a bit of a carryover from previous roles you had, before your appointment to the assistant ministry. This is the laws progressing the criminalisation of fake or deepfake pornographic and sexual imagery. A Senate committee report came out on that yesterday. No great opposition to it, it seems, in the Senate. But one of the concerns in the hearings was that a tidal wave of complaints may well be unleashed once this is passed into law. Are our agencies particularly Federal Police adequately resourced to deal with this new criminal offence about to be created?
THWAITES: Well, Greg, I think everyone needs to be resourced to deal with what is a really serious problem in terms of the creation of deepfakes. And there's a responsibility for that obviously from a law enforcement point of view, and also a responsibility on the social media platforms that sometimes are the platforms that enable this behaviour to come. That's a responsibility right across the board. I haven't seen the details of that inquiry but certainly our Government's commitment to keeping women and children in particular safe online is absolute. We do know, you know, you've seen it, I've seen it, there's a disturbing trend and rise in misogynistic comment and content online. We do need to address it both as a Government and as a community.
HOST: That's an ongoing piece of work, even since you left, this special committee created to address social media problems. Kate Thwaites, we'll wrap it up there with a promise to come back to other matters in the women's agenda, social security, and ageing, as things progress with your appointment. Thanks again.
THWAITES: Thanks, Greg.