Prime minister Tony Abbott and opposition leader Bill Shorten spoke at the International Womens’ Day parliamentary breakfast.
Abbott said that his wife had joked that his three daughters had helped turn an “unreconstructed bloke into a feminist”.
“Anyone who is in Australian has won the lottery of life and if you look at our country and the deal that it gives to women; it is obviously pretty good. It wasn’t so long ago as a Sydneysider that there was a female lord mayor, a female premier, a female prime minister, a female head of state in our governor general, a female monarch, obviously, and indeed the richest person in our country was female,” he said.
“So, this is a nation which has smashed just about every glass ceiling, but we need to do more – we need to do more.”
Abbott then spoke about the Coalition’s paid parental leave scheme, give women earning up to $150,000 six months of their wage using a levy on business to fund it.
“This was one of those moments when people from all sides of politics needed to realise that a watershed had been reached.”
He said: “So, it is, I like to think, with the Coalition support for a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme.”
Abbott reportedly stated that “once upon a time” he would not have been comfortable addressing the International Womens’ Day breakfast.
“And it is true that my views on policy towards women have changed and evolved in response to watching friends of mine, watching colleagues of mine and in particular looking at my daughters grow up and thinking what would I want for them?
“Now, they are growing up in Australia and, regardless of your circumstances, Australia is the best country in the world for everything.” he said.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten also spoke about his daughters in his speech.
“Next year my beautiful little daughter, Clementine, will be starting primary school,” he said.
“Next year, my beautiful daughter Georgette will be starting secondary school. What my wife Chloe and I want for them is what I believe every parent wants for their child in their first year of primary school, or their first year of secondary school; we want our daughters to be safe and resilient, to make friends and to have their love of learning supported by a great teacher at a great school.”
He reportedly stated that every girl in the world should have the opportunity to go to secondary school, and spoke of the Millennium Development goals 130 countries have subscribed to, which aim to achieve equality in education for boys and girls. He then spoke about the gender pay gap, which is allegedy 17% in Australia at this time.
“We need to recognise that when we talk about the economic contribution of women, that we should recognise the vast amount of unpaid work that is already done by Australian women, just perhaps not appreciated the way it should be,” he said.
