The National Foundation for Australian Women has developed an overview of the 2019 Budget and its impact on women. This is complemented by a series of papers by NFAW’s Social Policy Committee, to summarise 2019 Budget measures of importance to women in Australia.  NFAW is a feminist organisation, independent of party politics. 

With the budget predicted to be back in the black next year and an election around the corner, has the forecast surplus resulted in new funding for programs and payments that women are seeking? Not really …

Funding reannouncements included $328 million to combat violence against women and children and $3.4 million for the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative.  But no improvements to parental leave or the affordability of quality childcare. No funding to address the dire circumstances that are conspiring to make older women the fastest growing group of homeless people in Australia. A commitment to continue pre-school funding for 4 year olds for one more year, but no extension to 3 year olds.

In global terms Australia has been slipping backwards in terms of the gender gap that persists between men and women for successive years. Australia has the second least generous paid parental leave policy in the OECD. The cost and availability of high quality early childhood education and care hampers women's workforce participation. Yet these concerns don’t even rate a mention – even when there is both money to be spent and votes to win.

Check out the Women's Agenda analysis:

The breakdown: What the Federal Budget actually lays out for women

What’s in the 2019 Budget for women? Very little

How the Australian budget process is failing women

The trolls are out there. Even the Workplace Gender Equality Agency has been targeted online with negative commentary and poor behaviour. Regrettably, in the last few months the WGEA has experienced a campaign of online bullying by those who believe gender inequality is merely the result of women making bad choices rather than having fair opportunities being denied to them.  To help us all to counter the trolls, the WGEA has developed a fact page with key information and statistics about women and work that we can link to our Facebook pages.

Women on Boards has called for Australian governments and businesses to urgently prioritise closing both the gender-pay and gender-investment gaps to achieve #balanceforbetter. Claire Braund, founder and director of Women on Boards, said that with the Federal election on the horizon, it was critical that governments came to grips with the notion of ‘financial gender balance’ if our economy and society were to prosper. 

She said the 40:40:20 metric WOB had long-been advocating – 40% men and 40% women with 20% of either and/or other genders in the boardroom, in political and business leadership, at management level and within the community – was even more relevant to address the ‘financial gender imbalance’ in Australia. “It has been proven over and again that gender balanced leadership leads to better decisions and more equitable outcomes for everyone,” Ms Braund said. “So let’s consider the economic implications of having a minimum of 40% of our aggregate national payroll going to women, 40% of small business grant funding going to female led businesses, 40% of venture capital being awarded to female founded start-ups….the list goes on. At the top level it’s about enshrining the 40% principal – one which sees at least 40% of the financial assets in this nation being owned or controlled by women – if we are to avoid the perfect of storm of more women living longer, retiring on less and relying on tax payer funded welfare.”

The major parties have made their election platforms accessible:

Liberal Party: Delivering Our Plan

March 2019   Policy slide show at https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan

Scroll down to Issue 15 on women: https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan/women  

Australian Labor Party National Platform: a fair go for Australia

February 2019 Full policy document at https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019/02/apo-nid219056-1330891.pdf

The ALP’s National Platform provides a comprehensive statement of their beliefs, values and program for government, including 204 references to women.

The subsection on Ensuring women’s equal place in a stronger democracy at Chapter 10 page 211 includes a commitment to support women’s representative organisations to participate in policy development.   There is a set of Resolutions to the National Platform starting at page 243 that includes addressing gender superannuation inequality and reducing barriers to reproductive and sexual healthcare [abortion reform]. 

How well does our Parliament represent us? Public faith in our democratic institutions can be undermined by the sense that powerful interests have more traction than the public interest. The stereotype of MPs as wealthy, white, men with law degrees or union backgrounds carries with it the implication that the outcomes of parliamentary business benefit those with the same background. But is there truth to the stereotype? 

In this Per Capita research paper Abigail Lewis asks whether there is an established ‘way in’ to Parliament, whether MPs overwhelmingly come from the same demographic backgrounds, schools, and career paths, and whether this might have implications for policy. It tracks how representative Parliament was in 1988 and how representative it became over the next thirty years, and asks whether Parliament has become more representative in response to advocacy for quotas and other redistributions of power and influence.

You can subscribe to the BPW International Newsletter through the BPWI website.  The latest newsletter can be accessed online as a magazine.  Links are also posted under the BPWI page on this BPWA website.

BPW Australia Director of Policy Angela has provided all Club Presidents with Policy Position Statements for the first three Resolutions from the 2018 National Conference. These form the basis for our pre-election lobbying and further position statements for other resolutions passed are being developed. 

Correspondence is being sent directly to Ministers , Partners and Media. Clubs are encouraged to discuss their approach local federal MPs.  Angela has provided Club Presidents with a Guide prepared some time ago by past Director of Policy Jean Murray which provides helpful tips on best ways to lobby effectively.  The BPWA Policy Position Statements and guide to lobbying can be accessed here:

• BPWA Policy Position Statement on Eldercare Leave
• BPWA Policy Position Statement on Pay Transparency
• BPWA Policy Position Statement on Extending Superannuation Guarantee
• BPWA How to Guide - Lobbying

School holidays offer children a break from the routine and demands of school and allow families to spend time together doing things they enjoy. However, 4 weeks of annual leave doesn’t match 12 weeks of school holidays so for working parents the summer school break can be challenging, stressful and expensive.

Professors Candice Harris and Jarrod Haar of Auckland University of Technology have researched how parents manage the school holiday juggle.  Many parents piece together a jigsaw of childcare, combining formal and informal care, but there is little data about these private arrangements.  Workplace childcare for school aged children is rare, especially in the private sector, so parents often rely on grandparents and community programs or leave older children home alone.  The authors suggest workplaces could offer working parents enhanced flexibility during the school holiday weeks, build holiday childcare or programme subsidies into remuneration options, provide workplace school holiday programmes for employees’ children, or enable staff to work remotely or part-time during holiday weeks.

Speaking at the ALP annual conference, Shadow Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek promised to make equal pay a priority. If elected in 2019, Labor will appoint a Fair Work Commission president who will head a pay equity panel, which will review and make decisions on pay disputes guided by a new equal remuneration principle. Plibersek acknowledged that substantial pay gaps exist across female-dominated industries and announced measures to fairly compensate workers in industries such as early-childcare and nursing will be a priority. She reported that women working in feminised industries such as healthcare, social assistance and education earn $30,000 less than the average man working in male-dominated industries such as mining and construction. Plibersek emphasised that a structural overhaul would ensure low paid workers — too often exploited– would be supported in their pursuits of more equal work conditions and pay.