as early as November last year the Morrison government had already ordered 135 million doses of four different vaccines. While history showed they had some problems, no government has the benefit of hindsight. Now nearly two million doses are being administered a week. the Prime Minister has done, just in these past weeks: he oversaw and worked with our coalition partners on getting people out of Afghanistan; additional support for thousands of childcare providers impacted by extended COVID lockdowns was announced; Australia's emissions are now down 20.8 per cent on 2005 levels, which puts us at roughly 74 per cent of the way towards our Paris target; extra assistance was provided for jobseekers across the country; reforms to the leadership structure of the elite SAS regiment were made; more medications were added to the PBS; super funds were held to account with the annual performance test; million-dollar grants to Australian defence exporters were announced; disaster assistance for northern New South Wales towns was announced and ministerial trade talks were held between Australia and India—and, I should add, during the COVID-affected June quarter the economy still grew by 0.7 per cent

The fall of the Afghan government and the subsequent Taliban takeover have quite rightly sent shockwaves around the world. Largely, the public discourse is centred around a narrative that the Taliban takeover means that the last two decades have accomplished nothing. I rise tonight to say that I strongly disagree. What that narrative fails to see is that, over the last 20 years, generations of women have seen what gender equality—or, more accurately, nearly gender equality—looks like. This gave the whole country hope for a freer life and a better future.

These brave Afghan women unshackled themselves from restraints placed upon them and achieved things that seemed unimaginable 20 years ago. In the past two decades, Afghan women have fought for their equal and rightful place in society, protected by our coalition forces. Young girls were free to attend school. Women were welcomed into universities, the police force, politics and professions such as the law. In Afghanistan, this was a radical step forward, evolving the very fabric of their society. Make no mistake: the Taliban's likely unravelling of these gains is an atrocity, and this is the greatest tragedy to come out of the fall of Kabul.

Everyone, regardless of their sex, has the right to feel safe from sexual and gender harassment. Since the Sex Discrimination Act was first introduced, in 1984, we've come a long way. However, since then, time and time again, we are unfortunately reminded that the work is not done and that there is still more to do. That is why I'm so grateful that we have people such as Kate Jenkins, who does such important work to make Australia a better place. As Ms Jenkins states in the Respect@Work report:

Workplace sexual harassment is not inevitable. It is not acceptable. It is preventable.

Sexual harassment is not a women's issue: it is a societal issue, which every Australian, and every Australian workplace, can contribute to addressing.