The Greens welcome the announcement this week that the government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will include new rules to end pay secrecy clauses to stop employees from discussing how much they get paid, something the Greens have previously sought to legislate for.

Lines attributable to Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson for Women, Senator Larissa Waters

“Pay secrecy has been an ongoing contributor to the gender pay gap.

The Greens welcome the joint agreement of business groups and unions, and support the ACTU and Business Council of Australia in urging the government to expand paid parental leave to 26 weeks.

The Greens’ PPL plan called for 26 weeks with payments that match salaries up to $100k pa, super paid on leave, and ‘use it or lose it’ incentives built in to encourage shared parenting, and we’re glad to see these groups coming onboard.

The Australian Greens have welcomed today’s release of the positive evaluation of Our Watch’s primary school education program, Respectful Relationships Education to Prevent Gender-Based Violence, and called on the government to fund a national roll out.
 
Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson for women, Senator Larissa Waters said: 
 
“Spoiler alert, evidence-based respectful relationships education works - not milkshake metaphors.
 

The Greens have slammed the Morrison government’s confusing and bizarre “Good Society” sexual consent videos which feature milkshakes, tacos and a man with a spear gun trying to convince a woman to swim with sharks.

Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women Larissa Waters said:

“It’s been two years since the government announced its ‘Respect Matters’ program, and this is what we get? This is the worst piece of consent education I’ve ever seen and proves, yet again, that the Morrison government is utterly out of touch on this issue.

Australia has fallen six places to 50th in the World Economic Forum’s latest global rankings on gender equality, reflecting a growing divide between men and women in terms of economic participation, health outcomes, and political empowerment.

The Greens say the Prime Minister’s reshuffle is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and won’t fix entrenched cultural and systemic issues in parliament or improve the lives of Australian women.

Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women Larissa Waters said:

“A whole one additional woman in Cabinet will not change the rank and sexist culture in this government, the Liberal Party, or the parliament.

The Greens say the Prime Minister’s expected Cabinet reshuffle is another cosmetic response to systemic failures and have called on the government to immediately act to protect women in parliament and across the country.

Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women Larissa Waters said:

“The PM is treating this issue of sexual violence against women and endemic misogyny as another PR problem to be managed away.

In the wake of recent parliamentary sexual abuse revelations and the petition started by Chanel Contos, the Greens have used International Women’s Day to call for $190 million to be allocated in the May Budget to fund respectful relationships education including sexual consent in all schools across the country.

$190 million over four years would support rolling out Our Watch’s respectful relationships education program, which has been successfully piloted in Victoria and Queensland.

The Greens have today announced their plan for equality for women which includes $5.3billion over 10 years to more adequately address the epidemic of family and domestic violence.

“The comprehensive suite of initiatives, designed to ensure women are safe, valued and treated as equals in private and public life, show the scale of work that needs to be done level the playing field for Australian women and girls,” Greens spokesperson for women Senator Larissa Waters said.

The latest scorecard from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows an alarming continuation of the gender pay gap that won’t be closed for decades, Greens spokesperson for women, Senator Larissa Waters said.

“We’ve still got a 16.2 per cent gap in what men and women get paid - it’s clearly still far better to be a bloke in this country when it comes to salary,” Senator Waters said. 

“There has been a small, welcome decline overall, but the fact men still earn $25000 more every year on average than women is outrageous.