Well thank you so much Catherine and thank you so much ladies and gentlemen. It is a real honour for me to be here amongst this extraordinary gathering; this vast concourse of people, all here to celebrate International Women’s Day.
I am here because I want my three daughters to have a life that’s as good as any man’s. After all, it was Hillary Clinton who said that women are the world’s greatest underutilised resource and my job as Prime Minister is to ensure that the women of Australia are free to have the life they choose to live.
Now that’s a good intention and the world is full of them.
I know that actions speak louder than words. That’s why the Government in Canberra will rework the childcare system to try to make it more responsive to the needs of modern families and to the realities of the modern workforce in accordance with the coming recommendations of the Productivity Commission.
We will introduce a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme.
Now I know that the former government introduced a parental leave scheme based on the minimum wage. That was good, but I want a better scheme – a scheme that is based on peoples’ real wage. Let’s face it, when you are on sick leave you get paid at your real wage, when you are on holiday you get paid at your real wage, if you take long service leave you get paid at your real wage. I think that if you are on parental leave you should be paid at your real wage and that’s what will happen under this Government.
Not only should you get your real wage, but you should get superannuation too. Why should women’s retirement be less important than men’s retirement?
Why should Australia be one of just two OECD countries that does not base paid parental leave on peoples’ real wage?
So my friends, I don’t see this as a progressive policy or as a conservative policy – I just see this as a sensible policy.
I don’t see this as a left-wing idea or as a right-wing idea – I see this as an idea whose time has come.
I don’t see this as a women’s policy – I see this as a family policy.
I see it as an economic policy because if we can finally have a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme we will boost productivity, we will boost participation, we will enable all of our people to be the contributors that we should all have the chance to be because that’s what I want, as your Prime Minister, I want every single Australian to have the opportunity to make the most of life. That’s what I want.
So it’s great to be here. It’s great to be here with my friend, Premier Barry O’Farrell, it’s great to be here with Senator Cash, but most of all it’s great to be here in this splendid Australian gathering as we approach International Women’s Day wanting to do the right thing by all our citizens.
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