This morning the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, launched our ninth Labor women's budget statement. If ever you needed proof of the difference that national leadership makes, you need look no further than the last long nine years, which started with Tony Abbott making himself minister for women, back in 2014. Since then, Australia's ranking in the global gender inequality index has plummeted to a record low. We are now sitting in 50th place. Compare that to New Zealand, our closest neighbour, sitting at No. 4. That's what happens when you don't listen, when you miss the mark on every occasion, when you see women's issues as nothing but a political problem to be fixed.

Whether it was Brittany Higgins, Grace Tame, Saxon Mullins or the many others who cried out for action, the Prime Minister was nowhere to be found. When Kate Jenkins handed down the Respect@Work report, the Prime Minister squibbed it, implementing just the easy ones and ignoring all the rest. After nine long years, this government delivered a budget with no vision for the future, no reckoning for the long-term problems, no purpose beyond buying people's votes. But Australian women have this Prime Minister clocked. If we want safe workplaces, safe places to live, fair and equal pay, access to quality education, and a justice system that works for survivors—which should not be too much to expect in 2022—we have to change this government.