Dr MARJORIE O'NEILL (Coogee) (12:51:06): I thank the member for Blue Mountains for moving this important motion in the House. Despite the passing of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act 1977, the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the Sex Discrimination Commissioner being appointed in the same year, pay inequality in New South Wales and Australia is alive and well, with the pay gap between men and women still at 14 per cent. Gender pay gap is much more than just a number, it is an important symbol of the inequality that continues to exist between women and men. This is a critical motion. Now more than ever it is important that we address real pay inequality which impacts women.
We are in part of the greatest economic crisis this country and world has seen in decades. We are seeing the largest unemployment figures since the Great Depression. Job cuts and increasing unemployment disproportionately impact women. In addition, the public sector wage reduction by the Premier and the Treasurer is not only an attack on our hardworking public sector workers, who have been on the front line during this pandemic as well as during the bushfires and drought, but also an overwhelming attack on women—our cooks, cleaners, porters, who are some of our lowest paid public servants, and our nurses, midwives, teachers, cops, ambos, just to name a few. Women make up roughly 60 per cent of the New South Wales public service and our Government is turning its back on them.
Freezing pay for even a short period reduces the lifetime income and superannuation savings of public sector workers by tens of thousands of dollars because it permanently reduces their lifetime wage trajectory. A six‑month pay freeze for a typical public sector worker will reduce career earnings by an estimated $23,500 and superannuation accumulations by another $4,000 or more. A longer two-year freeze will reduce career earnings by over $100,000 and superannuation accumulations by $17,500. It clearly has a huge, detrimental and crucial impact on individuals but it is also bad economics. Put simply, public sector workers spend money within their local communities on local goods and services provided by local businesses. If their pay is cut they have less disposable income and are forced to spend less, removing support from local economies and multiplying the pain of public sector wages cuts onto small businesses across the entire State.
As this is Homelessness Week it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that the fastest growing group of homeless people is women over the age of 50. While addressing women's homelessness is complex and the result of many factors, pay inequality is one of the underlying driving factors. In Australia women working full‑time today earn on average 14 per cent less than men. This pay inequality has a direct impact on the capacity of women to obtain superannuation to be used at the end of their working life. A combination of less savings in their superannuation and the fact that women are less likely to own their own asset at the end of their life has created a perfect storm, resulting in an alarming number of older women now becoming homeless.
The reality is gender pay gap does not only impact women once in their life, it has a compounding effect that results in women having a reduced earning capacity over their lifetime and accumulating less money for retirement. Women are more likely to spend their lives working and caring at home for loved ones. As a result women are significantly more likely to retire in poverty than are men, increasing their chances of homelessness. If the Premier is serious about homelessness, one of her signature issues, addressing pay inequality is just one of the ways that she can ensure greater equality for women over their entire life span and addressing older women's homelessness. I commend the motion to the House and thank the member for Blue Mountains for moving it.
