Gender pay gap for full-time workers continues to shrink, ABS figures show
The ABS has released the May average earnings figures, which allows us to look at the gap in pay between men and women. The good news is that the gap is narrowing.
Rebekha Sharkie is right: Australia Institute research has found that Medicare is failing regional and remote Australians, with rural people getting sicker and dying younger than their city counterparts.
Tue 19 May 2026 14.00 AEST
Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
On 14 May 2026, Rebekha Sharkie, Member for Mayo, spoke to the House of Representatives about rural and regional access to healthcare:
“When we look at the health gap, regional Australians experience higher costs of health care and worse health outcomes than our metro counterparts…
In fact, the National Rural Health Alliance in 2021 saw that there was an $848 spend gap between a person who lives in regional Australia and a person who lives in metro Australia. Well, for the 2023-24 year, that’s blown out to over $1000 per person.
And what that means is that we die younger… It’s a postcode lottery.”
And Rebekha Sharkie is right: Australia Institute research has found that Medicare is failing regional and remote Australians, with rural people getting sicker and dying younger than their city counterparts.
But the rural heath divide is not an unavoidable geographical fact; it is the predicable and preventable result of bad health policy.
Medicare was built on the promise that access to healthcare in Australia would be universal. But unless Medicare is reformed, there will continue to be a rural health divide.
Verdict: True
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The ABS has released the May average earnings figures, which allows us to look at the gap in pay between men and women. The good news is that the gap is narrowing.
Last week’s NAPLAN results landed with their usual media splash. There were headlines worrying about the significant proportions of students below certain benchmarks and specific questions about maths results for students in Year 3. One important element missing from the debate so far has been how students from disadvantaged backgrounds are falling further behind their advantaged peers.
