“Countries like Luxembourg, Belgium, New Zealand, when they’ve set their minds to it, have successfully closed their pay gaps by 40 to 60 per cent,” she will tell the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“If we did the same in Australia, we’d be putting about $13,000 a year extra into women’s pockets.

“Governments have talked about the gender pay gap on and off for decades. But we haven’t successfully shifted the dial. We need to replace rhetoric with action.”

The new policy sets a target of 40 per cent for women in all chair and deputy chair positions across the federal government by 2025, up from an estimated 33 per cent today.

It also confirms a gender diversity target of 50 per cent for all public board positions within the first term of a Labor government, applying this to each portfolio including defence.

As well, it promises a “stretch target” of 50 per cent for women in senior public service roles by 2025.

Ms Plibersek will not set a pay equity target but appears open to the idea of introducing one in government, arguing the pay gap between men and women has been “stuck” between 15 and 19 per cent for over two decades.

“Gender equity in all these spheres is just a question of political will,” she will say, according to a draft of her speech.

“Setting targets is an expression of that will.”

Central to her argument is Labor’s record in setting quotas to encourage women into parliament, starting with a 30 per cent target in 1994 and rising to 50 per cent today.

If Labor wins the Batman byelection on March 17 and former ACTU president Ged Kearney enters Parliament, 48 per cent of the party’s federal MPs will be women.

“Without targets, over the same period, representation of women in the Liberal Party has risen to only one in five,” she will say.

“They’re at 22 per cent. We’re at almost 50 per cent. Now don’t try and tell me that targets don’t work.”

Ms Plibersek’s speech comes one day after Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer set out plans to tackle economic insecurity for women workers and take on social media companies over the way private claims of sexual harassment turn into public disputes.

Ms O’Dwyer defended Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash in the political stoush over affairs in parliament, saying the minister had withdrawn her remark about the female staff in the office of Labor leader Bill Shorten.

“There are a lot of people in Parliament who say a lot of things and then also don’t say sorry. That’s not to excuse it, but it’s simply to say that when you withdraw the remarks, that is the standard that’s been set here,” Ms O'Dwyer told the National Press Club.

Ms O’Dwyer acknowledged the need for the Liberal Party to get more women into Parliament, saying she was interested in setting up a “fighting fund” to encourage female candidates.