Christmas letter
NFAW interviews well known feminist, Mrs S. Claus
It was a few weeks before Christmas when I finally had the opportunity to meet Mrs S. Claus who had agreed to discuss her views on pay equity and paid maternity leave.
With trepidation, I approached her House on the Hill.
She quickly too charge of the interview.
"What has NFAW done this year to get onto the S. Claus ‘nice list'" she asked.
I, uh, well, we...." I stumbled.
"Come on girl, tell me about it - no point hiding your light under a reindeer!"
So I thought about it. Not a bad year, really. Not bad at all. Good enough to make our new Patron, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, quite proud. (Mrs Claus suggested that Her Excellency might remember some of the consultations they did together back in the bad old days, before "feminism" became a dirty word.)
During the year, NFAW's Social Policy Committee, took a pat on the back when the government referred the issue of paid maternity leave to the Productivity Commission. But that was just the beginning. After many more media releases, interviews, much lobbying, and some consultations, the issue is still not resolved, and action is ongoing.
The Social Policy Committee also put out a call for action on pay equity early in January, and provided Wayne Swan with some timely advice on the 2008 budget.
2008 was a big year for submissions. Our Social Policy Committee provided input on:
- The Budget
- Paid Maternity Leave, followed by our response to the draft report
- Pay Equity
- The Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act
- Out of school hours care
- Award modernisation
- Pensions
- Health Insurance Regulations, and
- Maternity Services
In addition, NFAW signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Library providing access to the Women's Register for the People Australia website to be launched next year.
Work funded by the Copyright Agency on the history of Australian women journalists, was completed and launched at the National Press Club and the Victorian Women Politicians project was launched in Melbourne a few days later. The NSW Office for Women also agreed to fund a project about women in Broken Hill.
Other NFAW activities included the presentation of the Marian Eldridge Award to Jennifer Mills from the Northern Territory, and the presentation of the Women's Category Prize for the National History Challenge to Imogen Forbes-MacPhail.
NFAW events were held in Brisbane, and in Sydney, to provide networking opportunities and information sharing. We also sponsored a Gender Equity Forum at the National Press Club in Canberra, with a panel that included the Minister for the Status of Women and the Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group. Three successful Winters Tales afternoons were also held in Canberra, despite the weather.
In addition to all this, there were improvements on the administrative side of NFAW.
In the first few months we put in place policies and a Director's Handbook aimed at strengthening our financial probity, particularly in regard to our Preferred Donor Funds.
- A website redesign resulted a steady increase in the number of visitors to the NFAW website, with a dramatic increase occurring when we introduced a blog that gives a personal perspective on women's issues.
- We can also better utilise our membership fees as the introduction of online payments for functions and events have reduced our administrative costs.
- This was also the first year that we have had NFAW Christmas cards for sale on the website.
"Who cares?!" she said "Tell me where to join! I want to make sure all of the elves become members."
NFAW sends all our members best wishes for the festive season, and our warm thanks for your ongoing support.