Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has used an International Women’s Day address at Parliament House to reaffirm Labor’s commitment to advancing gender equality in practice, not just in principle, declaring that equality for women is central to Australia’s national interest.
Speaking in Canberra on Thursday, Albanese acknowledged Australia’s long history of leadership on women’s rights, tracing it back to Jessie Street, one of only eight women among 850 delegates at the founding of the United Nations in 1945. Street was instrumental in ensuring the UN Charter explicitly referenced discrimination on the basis of sex.
Quoting Street’s warning that “where the rules are silent, women are not usually considered”, Albanese said this year’s International Women’s Day theme, Balance the Scales, was a reminder that inequality still exists globally — and that progress in Australia had only come because women organised, campaigned and demanded change.
He pointed to past legal and structural barriers faced by Australian women, including bans on married women working in the public service, limited access to single parent payments, and the absence of no-fault divorce or a Family Court, noting that none of those barriers “fell over on their own”.
Albanese said Labor’s decision to adopt affirmative action in 1994 marked a shift from aspiration to accountability, making gender equality something that could be measured and enforced.
“I am proud to lead the first government in Australian history with a majority of women,” he said, arguing that greater female representation had strengthened both policy and governance by ensuring decision-making reflected “modern Australia”.
The Prime Minister highlighted a series of reforms aimed at improving women’s economic security and workforce participation, including record investment in women’s health, wage increases in female-dominated sectors such as aged care and childcare, the removal of the childcare Activity Test, expansion of paid parental leave to six months, and the introduction of superannuation on parental leave.
He also addressed gender-based violence, describing it as an issue Australia once met with silence from neighbours, institutions, politicians and the media. Albanese said national awareness had shifted due to the courage of women speaking out, but stressed that the current test was “action and outcomes”.
Among key measures, he cited the introduction of 10 days’ paid family and domestic violence leave, increased crisis accommodation and affordable housing, expansion of the Leaving Violence Program, and reforms to prevent perpetrators from using social security and financial systems as tools of coercive control.
The government, he said, was also focusing on prevention, including early intervention for young men to break cycles of abuse.
Albanese concluded by saying that balancing the scales would require coordinated economic, social and legal reform — and the involvement of both women and men.
“Greater equality for women is a test of our national character,” he said, adding that Australia could once again lead globally by staying true to its values of fairness, opportunity and aspiration for all.
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