Flexible, good paying jobs for women key to unlocking economic activity, says Finance Minister Katy Gallagher

Women are the economy’s “untapped resource” says Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, and they’ll be central in helping the government claw back almost $21 billion in savings.

Women are an “untapped resource” in the economy and ensuring there are good paying, part-time jobs to use their talents, education and skills is a central part of the federal government’s budget, which will also claw back almost $21 billion in savings.

As Finance and Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher has overseen a “line-by-line” audit of all government spending looking for opportunities to cut costs, as she also separately considered the impact of each budget measure on women.

In an exclusive interview with News Corp, Ms Gallagher said there was huge economic potential in supporting women to overcome the significant “structural barriers” they faced after taking time off work to have children.

“There are hundreds of thousands of women who are constrained from being able to do what they want to do and contribute (to the workforce) in the way they want to contribute,” she said.

Ms Gallagher said ensuring flexible, career-level access to the labour market through measures like child care and gender-neutral paid parental leave was key.

Diana Grof with her daughter Mia McKeever. The federal government wants to support mums to work in the jobs they want for the hours they choose. Picture: Richard Walker

“It’s actually good economic policy, to make sure all your workers across society are able to do work at the level that they want to work for the hours they want to work,” she said.

“That’s good for business, good for families, good for the economy.”

Ms Gallagher said the impact of the budget on women was considered as a matter of “equity”.

“It shouldn’t be seen as men versus women or anything like that,” she said.

“It’s actually building the economy that’s going to drive you know, prosperity and improve living standards is by making sure everyone can work to the degree they want to work and have choices about how they manage pressures.”

Ms Gallagher said treasury analysis on issues like the “motherhood penalty,” which found a woman’s earnings dropped to 55 per cent of their pre-pregnancy income within five years of having a child, would inform future budgets.

Finance and Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher has been preparing the October Budget with Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: Jonathan Ng

She said a “silver lining” from the Covid pandemic was the realisation businesses could be successfully structured differently to accommodate workers requiring flexible conditions.

Ms Gallagher has been overseeing an audit of all budget spending, the first phase of which will be presented on Tuesday, with significant savings and unexpected expenses identified.

The Albanese Government’s 2022-23 budget will include more than $21 billion in savings and decisions to redirect existing funding, including $6.5bn from reprofiling infrastructure projects and $3.6bn from reducing spending on external labour, advertising, travel and legal expenses.

Ms Gallagher said the government would also claw back $2bn from grants programs, and had identified savings across many agencies.

“We have responsibly gone through the budget line-by-line and identified savings or re-prioritisations where we can to begin the task of budget repair or pay for new government priorities,” she said.

“The former government used taxpayers’ money to cynically buy votes before elections by politicising grants funds and used the budget to land political deals with the Nationals in the Coalition Party Room – that approach to spending ends in Labor’s first budget.”

Originally published as Flexible, good paying jobs for women key to unlocking economic activity, says Finance Minister Katy Gallagher