Senator WATERS (Queensland) (12:30): I move: That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) 28 August 2019 was Unequal Pay Day, marking the 59 additional days from the end of the previous financial year that women must work, on average, to earn the same amount as men earnt in 2018-19, (ii) the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) annual data, released on 15 August 2019, shows that the gender pay gap in Australia is still unacceptably high at 14%, (iii) men earn $25,717, or 21.3%, more than women each year on average, in full-time work across all jobs, including overtime and bonuses (total remuneration), (iv) financial and insurance services remains the industry with the highest total remuneration gender pay gap at 24.4%, (v) professional, scientific and technical services is the industry with the second-highest gender pay gap at 24.3%, (vi) in May 2019, the gender pay gap was 17.3% in the private sector and 10.7% in the public sector, (vii) in 2018, the gender pay gap amongst managers was 25.7%, with an average total remuneration dollar difference of $50,370 – WGEA attributes this gap as due to more discretionary pay and less reliance on awards and collective agreements among non-managers, (viii) the WGEA, KPMG Australia and Diversity Council of Australia paper, She's Price(d)less: the economics of the gender pay gap , estimates that gender discrimination is the largest single contributor to the gender pay gap, at 39%, (ix) WGEA data shows that 70% of workplaces have a formal policy and strategy in place to support flexible working arrangements for employees, yet less than 2% have set targets for men's engagement in flexible work, and (x) 47.8% of organisations reporting to WGEA provide primary carer's leave, and 41.8% provide secondary carer's leave, in addition to the Federal Government's paid parental leave scheme; and (b) calls on the Federal Government to: (i) increase the resourcing for WGEA, strengthen its powers, and require all large employers to publicly report their gender pay gap, (ii) prohibit the use of pay gag clauses in private employment contracts, which disguise the gender pay gap in the private sector, (iii) set gender pay equality as an objective of awards and the Fair Work Act, (iv) introduce measures to ensure appropriate classification and pay for work in traditionally low paid industries where the majority of workers are women and/or migrants, and (v) expand the coverage of WGEA to include the public sector.