Senator PAYNE (New South Wales—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women) (14:06): It seems to me that those opposite would have preferred to have seen the childcare sector collapse upon itself. It seems to me that they would have preferred that the government didn't take advice from the sector about how best to sustain it in the middle of a pandemic, because, quite frankly, you don't have the basic skills— Opposition senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! I will call the minister to continue when there's silence. Opposition senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Payne. Senator PAYNE: Prior to COVID-19— Senator Wong interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Cormann, a point of order? Senator Cormann: Senator Wong continues to defy your order. Interjections are disorderly. The PRESIDENT: Senator Wong, a point of order? Senator Wong: He's very sensitive today. I just said across the table that if he was going to play this game we would make the point that he was interjecting on his own minister. I'm not sure that that's an interjection; it's a private conversation with the leader of the government. The PRESIDENT: I don't want to get to the point where what I might broadly describe as conversations across the centre table are deemed as interjections. However, there have been interjections, Senator Wong, and I have called you to order previously. Senator Payne to continue. Senator PAYNE: Prior to COVID-19, there were more women in the workforce in Australia than ever before. The gender pay gap had closed to its lowest level on record, at 13.9 per cent. When Labor was last in office, it was 17.4 per cent. Our ambition as a government is to return to those numbers and grow them and enhance them. That is the approach we will be taking. We absolutely know that we must draw upon every woman and every man in this country in the recovery process, to ensure the fastest possible economic and social recovery.