NFAW acknowledges that this edition of newsletter edition to you during National NAIDOC Week 2023. With this year’s theme “For Our Elders”, NFAW salutes Indigenous Elders who have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in communities and families across Australia.
The second Albanese Budget builds on the initiatives introduced in the “bread and butter” budget from October 2022. Women’s economic equality was a priority last year, with changes proposed to childcare and paid parental leave (PPL) to enable economic activity.
The NFAW supports measures that improve the affordability, accessibility and quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC), early childhood development (ECD) and the well-being of children and families.
The NFAW supports measures that improve the affordability, accessibility and quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC).
The National Foundation for Australian Women supports legislating the Objective of Superannuation. The Objective should include the criteria of:-Preservation of savings-Generating income in retirement-Government support through the Age Pension and services including health and aged care-Ensuring a dignified retirement-Equity and sustainability
Consent - and how it is defined and defended - goes to the heart of upholding women’s rights to bodily autonomy, agency and self-determination. Without control over their own bodies and selves, women are far less likely to be able to access broader legal, political and economic rights. Personal agency includes the right to decide freely when and with whom to have sex.
Most of the provisions included in the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 (the Bill) were recommended in the submissions made by NFAW and other women’s organisations to the 2021 Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Review).
Workforce Australia (WFA) commenced in 2021 as a result of the findings of key reviews into the Jobactive program. Under the new model performance criteria have addressed some key failures of the previous systems. However the changes do not address some of the underlying flaws in how services are delivered to job seekers.
The Government’s commitments to extend PPL to 26 weeks should be included in the Bill. As the overall length of PPL periods increase to 2026, fathers and partners should be actively encouraged to access the PPL provisions, through effective and targeted campaigns, and in particular by increasing the ‘use it or lose it’ period.