Under Labor, the gender pay gap increased from 15.5% to 17.2%. Under our Government it has fallen to 14.5% and heading in right direction #Moretodo.— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 22, 2018
What Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott
Morrison is failing to point out in that tweet is that these statistics were released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
An Australian Government statutory agency created by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 which is a piece of legislation passed during the period that Labor MP Julia Gillard was prime minister.
An Australian Government statutory agency created by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 which is a piece of legislation passed during the period that Labor MP Julia Gillard was prime minister.
The reporting
requirements under the Act apply to all non-public sector employers with 100 or
more employees. Although smaller employers do not need to report, it is an
explicit function of the Agency to provide education and advice to all
employers – large and small.
Morrison failed to point out that the 14.5% he is bragging about is a national average, with most states having a lower gender pay gap percentage. Although women living in West Australia have to endure an eye watering 24.9% less in their pay packets than men.
He was also careful to ignore the fact that in November 2014 under an Abbott Coalition Government (in which Morrison was a cabinet minister) the national gender pay gap average was 18.5% - the highest it has ever been.
In addition Morrison neglects to mention that in Australia; The full-time total remuneration gender pay gap based on WGEA data is 22.4%, meaning men working full-time earn nearly $26,527 a year more than women working full-time.
However, what is unforgivable about Scott Morrison's tweet is that the Liberal Party objected to the bill which created the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 and Morrison himself tried to vote the bill down at 16:11 on 18 March 2012 according to Hansard.
