ANMF calls on Turnbull to address women’s financial disadvantage

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to make the inequality working women face one of his key election priorities.

ANMF federal secretary Lee Thomas said while International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate and recognise the work women carry out in nursing, midwifery and aged care, it’s also an opportunity to address the long list of financial burdens women face all the way through their working lives.

Thomas pointed to an Australian Council of Trade Unions gender pay gap report, which found Australian women are financially disadvantaged at every key stage of their life: in childhood; at the workplace; through pregnancy and motherhood; as a carer; and in retirement.

The report stated that the average superannuation balance for women at retirement is $138,150, compared with $292,500 for men, and that 60 per cent of women aged 65–69 have no superannuation at all.

“On this IWD, it’s time the Turnbull Government addresses the ongoing inequality working women continue to face,” Thomas said. “The ANMF is calling on Turnbull to make it one of his key election priorities, for the sake of all Australian women.”

Click below to hear from Annie Butler, ANMF assistant federal secretary.

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