[Greens-Media] Media release: Two thirds of Australians support workplace gender reporting

[Vandeleur, Monique (Sen L. Waters)]

Senator Larissa Waters
Senator for Queensland
Media release
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Two thirds of Australians support workplace gender reporting
An Essential Media poll out today shows only 15 per cent of Australians think workplace gender reporting should be weakened to apply only to companies with more than one thousand employees.
 "The Abbott Government was reportedly intending to raise the threshold for workplace gender reporting so that it only applied to companies with more than one thousand employees - less than 1% of Australian businesses," Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens spokesperson for women, said.
"We're pleased to hear reports that they are backing away from this, especially as 66 per cent of Australians think the reporting requirements should be kept in place for businesses with more than one hundred employees.
"We're still concerned that the Abbott Government is planning to make other changes to workplace gender reporting that will undermine efforts to tackle the gender pay gap.
"The Greens will continue to scrutinise the moving feast that is the Abbott Government's position on this issue, and continue to keep the pressure up for the gender pay gap to be fixed instead of hidden and entrenched.
"Workplace gender reporting provides data on how many women businesses employ, whether they are in senior roles, and how much they are paid compared to their male colleagues.
"This informs important work being done to tackle our shameful gender pay gap of 17.5%. It is only by having the gender pay gap out in the open that we can work to fix it," Senator Waters said.
See the full poll here: http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport
Contact - Monique Vandeleur 0419 626 725