PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
REALISING THE POTENTIAL: A WORKSHOP ON WOMEN
AND AWARD RESTRUCTURING
CANBERRA 6 JULY 1989
It gives me great pleasure to be opening this important
workshop on women and award restructuring.
I say it is important and I think I am as qualified as
anyone to define just how important is this workshop and the
subject with which it deals.
As advocate and later as President of the ACTU, I was
proudly and actively involved in the struggle of the labour
movement and the women's movement for equal pay.
As Prime Minister I have had the satisfaction of seeing the
implementation of legislation such as the Affirmative Action
and Sex Discrimination Acts.
on the basis of those experiences, I assert that with the
process of award restructuring, women workers stand on the
verge of a new era of industrial progress that will be at
least the equal of those earlier landmarks in their struggle
for industrial and economic rights.
Award restructuring offers gains of enormous significance to
all members of the workforce, to their employers, and to the
economy generally.
Specifically, award restructuring offers the potential to
transform the role of women in the workforce.
So it is very proper that this workshop should be called
' Realising the Potential'.
The workshop will provide a forum for exchanging information
that will help all of us to realise the full potential award
restructuring provides for improving the position of working
women. And it will allow us to develop further strategies to
achieve a better deal for women.
Of course this potential could not be realised today were it
not for the solid foundations, built in previous decades, on
which women's participation in the workforce is based.
In 1968, when as ACTU advocate I was presenting an Equal Pay
Case before the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission on
behalf of the Meat Industry Employees Union, I made a point
that is still valid today.
I observed that differences in the wages paid to men and
women were simply outmoded relics of assumptions and
conceptions dating from the beginning of the twentieth
century. The historic 1972 Equal Pay Case granting ' equal pay for
work of equal value' was the successful culmination of that
long equal pay struggle.
Its impact is measur ed by the fact that by the end of the
1980s women are earning almost 80 per cent of the average
full-time male earner, compared to less than 60 per cent in
the 1960s.
The significance of that achievement is of course increased
by the fact that since we came to office in 1983 there has
been an enormous increase in the number of jobs available to
women. Of the one and a half million jobs created under my
government since April 1983, almost 55 per cent have been
taken up by women.
women's labour force participation rate is now consistently
above 50 per cent, an historic high.
we have enacted three major pieces of legislation for
affirmative action and equal opportunity programs in the
private and public sectors, giving women greater freedom
from discrimination in employment.
The Affirmative Action Act, in particular, helps lay the
groundwork for award restructuring, in requiring
consultation with women, and review of areas such as
opportunities for promotion, training development and
conditions of service.
Nor have we been content with creating jobs and combating
discrimination within the workplace. We have also placed a
very heavy emphasis on opening the doors that might
otherwise prevent women from taking up the job opportunities
that are available.
Two examples are particularly striking: child care and
education. obviously, access to quality and affordable child care is
essential to women's workforce participation.
During my Presidency of the ACTU, maternity and adoption
leave for women workers was achieved. This has assisted
women to combine family responsibilities with workforce
participation. Now, in Government, we are massively expanding the provision
of child care. In the last Budget, we announced the
provision of 30,000 new child care places over four years,
which will by 1992 bring to 98,000 the number of new
Government-funded places a trebling of places since we
took office.
We also support the ACTU's test case on Parental Leave which
is due to come before the Industrial Relations Commission
shortly. we believe it makes good sense for family
responsibilities to be shared between parents.
In the field of education, our achievement is nothing less
than ensuring that Australian school kids girls as well as
boys increasingly are getting the start they need to a
satisfactory career.
It seems appalling that only a few years ago, in 1982, only
one in three Australian school children was staying on to
complete Year 12.
Now, more than half are finishing Year 12 and by the early
1990s, about two thirds will be doing so. In so doing, they
will be getting the best possible start to a working life.
Further, we are encouraging girls and women to enrol in
maths, science and technical subjects and courses.
The National Policy for the Education of Girls is a key
element in that strategy. It emphasises the co-operation of
all those involved in the provision of education the
Commonwealth, States, and private systems in improving the
quality of girls, education.
So through greater access to better education and training,
and through appropriate support services such as child care,
my Government is enabling women to compete more strongly in
the labour market.
The Government is making it clear: we want women to have
every opportunity to enter the workforce, and we value their
aspirations for economic independence and security.
I have briefly sketched these landmarks in the achievements
of working women not to create any sense of self
congratulation or complacency in this audience but to
highlight the potential of the logical next step: award
restructuring.
Award restructuring holds the promise of a fairer labour
market in which women can attain further wage justice and
can further strengthen their labour market position.
It sets the scene for recognising women's skills and
rewarding them appropriately, and for offering women not
just jobs, but careers. It holds the promise of a labour
market in which the terms and conditions of employment do
not obstruct women's labour market choices.
Women deserve equal access to the skills, training and
remuneration available to men.
Award restructuring can not only remove award provisions
that are directly discriminatory, but develop positive
measures which encourage and expand women's employment
opportunities. Progress hinges on the goodwill and good sense of both
employers and unions, and I feel confident that they are
already demonstrating the willingness to tackle issues of
discrimination in women's employment.
Without widespread commitment to genuine workplace reform,
the gains will not be forthcoming.
We, as a nation, will have lost a valuable opportunity to
enhance the nation's economic efficiency, and the working
lives, careers, employment opportunities and earnings of
Australian women will be constrained.
For the next two days you have the opportunity to deliberate
on how award restructuring can be used to best effect to
improve the position of women in the labour market. I
congratulate those who have organised this workshop, I wish
you well in your discussions and I look forward to hearing
your timely and practical advice.