The Newstart allowance, which has not increased in real terms in 25 years, is indexed to inflation, while other payments are tied to wages. This means the unemployment benefit continues to fall further behind living costs. Concerning research showing more than 80% of Newstart recipients are skipping meals to make ends meet.

https://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/376466/the-urgency-grows-for-raising-newstart#.XkvH9SgzbIU

Across the world, a new generation of women and men, and girls and boys, are speaking up for themselves and others, seizing the moment to reimagine economies, societies, and political systems so that they uphold human rights and achieve gender equality, leaving no one behind.

UN Women is bringing together the next generations of women’s rights activists with the gender equality advocates and visionaries who created the Beijing Platform for Action more than 2 decades ago. Collectively, these change agents can tackle the unfinished business of empowering women through a new multigenerational campaign: “Generation Equality: Realising women’s rights for an equal future”.

The Generation Equality Forum is a global gathering of civil society, convened by UN Women, as a global public conversation for urgent action and accountability for gender equality. It will be connected in real time through interactive satellite sessions to maximise participation. It will take stock of progress and set an agenda of concrete action to realise gender equality before 2030.

The Forum will kick off in Mexico City in May and culminate in Paris in July, and be informed by CSW session in New York in March. It will feed into the UN General Assembly in September when the United Nations will officially commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

BPW International has a Women, Peace and Security Taskforce led by Dr Anne Hilty, BPW Hong Kong.  BPW affiliates worldwide are encouraged to develop their own WPS project at club or federation level.

The Taskforce was established as BPW International’s response to the Landmark Resolution 1325 (2000) of the UN Security Council on the relationship between gender, peace and security.  There have been 6 additional resolutions since then.

The 4 pillars of R1325 are Prevention, Participation, Protection, and Relief and Recovery:

• 1.    Prevention of conflict and violence against women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations.
• 2.    Equal participation of women and men in peace and security decision-making processes.
• 3.    Protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls rights in conflict situations.
• 4.    Reinforcement of women’s capacities to act as agents in relief and recovery.

The video Introduction to the BPW WPS project can be accessed by clubs interested in engaging with the international Taskforce and the WPS Taskforce Guidelines provide suggestions for advocacy and action with resources for our worldwide BPW affiliates to adopt and adapt according to their local needs.

We are in a time where more women are taking action by marching and sharing their stories. The media is amplifying our voices and asking hard questions of the institutions that continue to lock women out. Business leaders are under new pressure to demonstrate their companies are committed to being part of the gender equality solution.

BPW Australia is a founding member of the AGEC.  

The AGEC’s Manifesto for Gender Equality provides the framework for future campaigns, initiatives and priorities. It is a comprehensive statement of what true gender equality looks like and what is required to achieve it. Covering 12 dimensions of work and life, it identifies the causes of inequality, not just the symptoms. It will ensure we won’t stop this important work until we achieve equality for women across all dimensions of work, life and community.

http://www.apimagazine.com.au/property-investment/no-pay-gap-in-property-why-more-women-should-invest

2020 marks the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of the League of Nations — the intergovernmental organisation, headquartered in Geneva, that emerged from the ashes of WW1.  Although the League was branded a failure due to its inability to prevent WW2, its legacies continued long after 1939 when it folded. As the template for modern global governance, and direct precursor to the United Nations which was established in 1945, the League profoundly shaped the world we live in today.

This history parallels that of BPW.

BPW USA was formed in 1919 by our Founder, lawyer Lena Madesin Phillips and she worked to spread the organisation internationally, with BPW International established in 1930 in Geneva.  BPW International was one the international women's organisations that lobbied and influenced the League of Nations to include and involve more women, and subsequently the United Nations where BPW advocated strongly for the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women.

This article in The Conversation charts the influence of Australian women and women's organisations on the work and focus of the League of Nations and the United Nations.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6620629298145558528

KPMG’s newest proposal, Unleashing Our Potential — The Case for Further Investment in the Child Care Subsidy, prepared in collaboration with Chief Executive Women, pushes for workforce disincentives for secondary earners to be reduced. The aim is to reduce Australia’s workforce participation gap between men and women, especially parents.

The current government child care subsidy is based on family, rather than individual income, and it creates very high work disincentives for secondary earners – most commonly mothers. KPMG calculated the income from an extra day’s work that is lost to income tax and Medicare levy, withdrawn family tax benefit, reduced childcare subsidy and increased out-of-pocket childcare costs – and found the current system has an unacceptably high Workforce Disincentive Rate which impacts mostly mothers as second earners.   Working 4 days instead of 3 days can mean only 12% of pay earned on the 4^th day adds to the family coffers.   

But under KPMG’s proposal, she would keep almost 50% of the money earned by that 4^th day’s work by capping the WDR at the second earner’s marginal income tax rate plus 20% and providing a top-up payment through the CCS system. This would benefit households across the income scale, but especially those on modest incomes who are most affected.  The plan also calls for the withdrawal of the CCS ‘cliffs’ that a family can fall off when just $1 extra earned could lose $5,000 of subsidy.

BPW Australia (the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women) supports the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) “Raise the Rate” national campaign. The campaign urges the Morrison Government to immediately lift the single rate of Newstart, Youth Allowance and other related payments by at least $75 per week, and index Allowances to wages. The current allowance of $40 a day is too low to give people the support they need to get through tough times and into suitable work. Most people receiving Newstart live below the poverty line.

The Australian Council of Social Service is a national advocate for action to reduce poverty and inequality and the peak body for the community services sector in Australia.  ACOSS launched the national campaign “Raise the rate” as part of Anti-Poverty week earlier this year with over 100 community organisations signed up as supporters since its launch.

“Newstart’s purpose, to assist people back into work, is being undermined by the limited resources people on Newstart have. If we as a country wish to encourage everybody to undertake meaningful work, we should endeavour to provide a benefit program that supports this”, Jacqueline Graham, BPW Australia President said.

“More than 100,000 parents’ on Newstart are single women who are being disproportionately impacted by the level of Newstart payments. The difficulty in entering the world of work impacts these women at the moment of their greatest need and continues to impact through their prime working lives, with concomitant effects on the broader economy and continued dependence on assistance. Just as single mother of 3 boys, Juanita, is experiencing with her story on the campaign page” Jacqueline said.

A report issued in 2018 by Deloitte Access Economics that was commissioned by ACOSS, considers the impact of proposed policy change as a ‘catch up increase’ of $75 a week – an extra $10.71 a day that would be received by around 770,000 Australians. The report finds that increasing these payments will boost wellbeing in regional communities doing it the toughest, lifting the incomes of people most in need, as well as delivering 12,000 new jobs.

“For over 70 years, BPW Australia has supported, encouraged and educated women and girls by succeeding in our lobbying efforts to influence local and national governments to address women’s issues. BPW Australia advocates for women at work, women who have worked and for women that  want to work. With over 75% of our membership in Regional Australia, the work of ACOSS highlights the necessary economic & well-being boost our society needs,” Jacqueline said.

To find out more and take action go to  https://raisetherate.org.au/about/  https://raisetherate.org.au/stories/

https://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=raising-newstart-and-youth-allowance-would-boost-jobs-wages-and-inject-millions-into-local-communities

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-of-the-year-that-was-2019/

In 2019 we have seen conversation increase for family balance , financial well-being and shared parental leave. These issues for women have been presented, discussed, debated and endorsed at BPW National Conferences since 2004, with resolutions passed in 2007, 2013 and again in 2016. 

As a non-partisan organisation, we have worked relentlessly to urge governments to continue the inclusion of equal rights for women in legislation.

Here's to 2020 and hope becoming reality.