International Women’s Day has prompted me to reflect not just on how far women have come but how certain attitudes are still holding us back from achieving equality.

About nine months ago I responded in Parliament to this contribution by Liberal Senator Gerrard Rennick, who said that parents with pre-school-aged children should just stay home and described subsidised early childhood education and care as “the hand of government teaching in and taking away our children’s youth.”

No senior Liberal has condemned the comments, and when I wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, inviting him to deny that the comments do not reflect his government’s view, he declined to do so.

Women’s equality cannot advance unless we continue to challenge outdated views like these.