Gender-based analysis defines the ways in which public policies affect women and men differently. It does so through the systematic use of data to better tailor the development of government programs. The Commonwealth government stopped production of its Women’s Budget Statement, part of the official Budget papers in 2014, after 40 years of production.
Following the release of the 2020 Federal Government budget, the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) commissioned independent analysis by the Centre of Policy Studies to identify the effect of investment in the care sector. Workers in Aged Care, Disability Care and Child Care are among the lowest paid workers in the Australian economy yet work long hours to support community needs.
These position papers have been developed by NFAW’s Social Policy Committee to summarise 2020-2021 Budget measures of importance to women in Australia. It also contains a summary of modelling on the impacts of increased government expenditure in the care sectors - see Appendix A.
The Government has advised women not to worry about how the Budget affects them because ‘Nothing in the budget is gendered’. Policy-makers evidently need reminding that gender blindness is not gender neutral. COVID is not gender blind: it actively undermines the position of women. The 2020 Budget was an opportunity to counter the effects of COVID by proactively supporting women.
The budget process affects women and men in different ways; it is not gender neutral. This submission responds to the terms of reference through a gender lens.
NFAW welcomes the opportunity to respond to this inquiry into the way the Victorian state government budget addresses gender equity. We view the inquiry as particularly timely in the light of its intersection with the government’s Gender Equality Bill. Indeed, our recommendations and discussion largely address the intersection of an annual Women’s Budget Statement (WBS) with the operational arrangements proposed in the Bill.
When Government policies and programs are developed and managed in the absence of an informed and evidence-based gender analysis, they are at risk of delivering poor service, as is the case with effective marginal tax rates, or actual harm as is the case with ParentsNext.
The worsening in health and wellbeing and their determinants among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples clearly shows that current strategies are failing, and that the directives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have not been supported.
NFAW is dedicated to promoting and protecting the interests of Australian women, including intellectual, cultural, political, social, economic, legal, industrial and domestic spheres, and ensuring that the aims and ideals of the women’s movement and its collective wisdom are handed on to new generations of women. NFAW is a feminist organisation, independent of party politics. These position papers have been developed by NFAW’s Social Policy Committee to summarise 2019 Budget measures of importance to women in Australia.
