NFAW calls on the Next Government to Continue Progress for Women

We urge the next Government to be bold and to continue to progress the gender reforms initiated by the 47th Parliament.

NFAW has examined the policy areas that are of most relevance to the economic wellbeing of women, and our analysis shows that the Albanese Government has placed gender reform at the core of its decision making, improving the lives of many women.

The heart of those reforms has been in the machinery of government: ensuring that policy decisions include analysis of the effects on women; revitalising the Women’s Budget; and strengthening the role of WGEA.

The changes to the Fair Work Act and the implementation of Gender Panels; higher wages in the care sector, a highly feminised workforce; the extension of childcare and progressing aged care reforms will all benefit women.

There are still policy areas that need attention. Climate change is real, and women bear the burden of disaster recovery; and women receiving Jobseeker and other welfare payments are living in poverty.

Affordable housing, whether as a homeowner or renter, is a matter of urgency. We urge the incoming Government to accelerate programs that have been commenced – not change course.

We are facing geo-political uncertainty. The incoming government could see this as a sign to apply the brakes on programs that address inequality.

We call on the incoming government to be bold and continue to invest in programs that reduce gender and intergenerational inequality.

Professor Helen Hodgson Chair Social Policy Committee	Marie Coleman AO PSM Advisor to Social Policy Committee

National Foundation for Australian Women Gender Lens Analysis of the 2024 Federal Budget: Shows progress but lacks ambition.

NFAW's 2024 Federal Budget gender lens analysis finds that the budget's initiatives only partially reflect the ambition outlined in the Government's Working for Women—A Strategy for Gender Equality, released in March.

While there are some commendable efforts to include gender impact analysis, particularly women's careers in the Future Made in Australia program, it has not yet been fully integrated across the entire budget process.

"The government's efforts in integrating gender analysis into the budget process, including requiring gender impact assessments for significant project proposals, are commendable," said Sally Moyle, Acting NFAW President.

"Nonetheless, NFAW urges further investment in gender-responsive budgeting, capacity development across government, and enhanced monitoring and accountability mechanisms."

"Working for Women acknowledges the economic disadvantage that women experience," said Professor Helen Hodgson, Chair of the NFAW Social Policy Committee.

"While some of the budget measures will reduce that disadvantage, the budget lacks ambition overall.

"The Working for Women strategy has set high expectations for real and ambitious action. NFAW calls on the Government to realise these commitments in forthcoming budgets, ensuring comprehensive and sustained progress towards gender equality."

Key budget highlights:

• Support for women in the care economy: Additional support, including supporting wage increases for care workers, payment of superannuation in the Commonwealth government's paid parental leave scheme and tax cuts extending to low and middle-income taxpayers, is welcome.
• Investment in violence prevention: NFAW acknowledges the investment of almost $1 billion in the Leaving Violence Program, extending the Escaping Violence Payment trial. However, there is a pressing need for greater investment in frontline services and consistent national service standards.

Despite these positive measures, NFAW is concerned about several critical areas:

1. Specialist services for violence against women:

• The budget does not sufficiently invest in legal help, specialist domestic and family violence services, health justice partnerships, and sexual violence services.
• The Escaping Violence Payment does not adequately address the needs of diverse groups, including women with disabilities, Indigenous women, culturally and linguistically diverse women, and LGBTIQA+ individuals.

2. Recognition of unpaid care:

• Including superannuation in paid parental leave and changes to Carer Payment and Carer Allowance are steps forward.
• Disappointingly, the budget does not relax the Child Care Activity Test, which could improve outcomes for disadvantaged children and encourage workforce participation among affected women.

3. Economic security and workforce participation:

• Funding for aged care workers and a commitment to wage increases for early childhood education and care workers are positive steps.
• However, the community sector, including domestic violence, homelessness, and legal services, remains undervalued and underfunded.

4. Addressing poverty and social security:

• Measures such as the energy rebate, bulk billing changes, increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance, and JobSeeker increases for those with partial work capacity are insufficient.
• The social security safety net remains inadequate, perpetuating poverty and disadvantage, particularly among women.

5. Healthcare bias and research:

• Initiatives addressing women's health issues, including menopause, fertility, and pregnancy loss, are important.
• More funding is needed for mental health, drug research, and removing gender bias in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and access to abortion care.

Read the 2024 Federal Budget gender lens analysis in full

About the National Foundation for Australian Women:

NFAW is a leading advocate for gender equality in Australia, independent of party politics and dedicated to promoting and protecting women's rights through policy advocacy, research, and education.

For more information, contact:

Sally Moyle, Acting NFAW President, 0400 167 927

Professor Helen Hodgson, Chair Social Policy Committee, 0418 906 162 (note AWST)

-END-

Introduction to the Gender Lens on the 2024-25 Budget

In March 2024 the Australian Government released “Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality”. This strategy identified five key priority areas to address the economic inequality that women experience. The five areas that the Government identified are:

• gender-based violence
• unpaid and paid care
• economic equality and security
• health
• leadership, representation and decision-making.

This is the framework that NFAW has adopted this year in our analysis of the 2024-25 Budget.

We welcome the headline measures that restructure the stage 3 tax cuts and superannuation on Commonwealth funded Paid Parental Leave, both measures that we have been calling for in our previous Gender Lens projects. These will particularly help women, as shown in our detailed analysis of these measures.

But there is a lack of ambition and structural reform across key portfolios.

The most intractable issues relate to the effect that the Gender Pay Gap has on women’s earnings, and the causes of that pay gap. The Government supports higher wages in the Aged Care and ECEC sectors, but there is still work to be done in this space, including the feminised professions of teaching and nursing that are largely funded by the states and territories.

We welcome the Women’s Budget Paper that has again identified some of the key initiatives and outcomes across portfolios. These examples are based on the requirement that Departments and Agencies implement gender responsive budgeting.

We note that OECD best practice for Gender Responsive Budgeting includes an assessment of the impact of budgets as part of the implementation. It is in that spirit that we present our independent analysis: A Gender Lens on the Budget: 2024-25.

In addition to the authors named on the papers NFAW would like to thank the editorial team of: Jennifer Bushell; Caroline Edwards; Helen Innes; and Mary Welsh. We also acknowledge the work of Dr Kathy MacDermott as principal editor over previous years that has shaped this year’s Gender Lens.

Professor Helen Hodgson Chair Social Policy Committee	Marie Coleman AO PSM Advisor to Social Policy Committee

Introduction to the Gender Lens on the May 2023 Budget

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. These measures come into force in July 2023, although some of the design issues around the proposed extension of PPL are yet to be finalised. This year the concerns of women are recognised across portfolios and the Women’s Budget Paper presented a range of evidence to support the need for action.

NFAW welcomes the welfare reforms that include support for single parents, the unemployed, energy fee relief, wage increases for aged care workers (the majority of whom are women), investment in Medicare for those on low-incomes, increased rent assistance, increased investment in housing and help to transition to clean energy. However we note that these changes amount to less than 2 per cent of the welfare budget and have only a small impact on living standards and poverty.

But the opportunity to reform the Stage 3 Income Tax cuts and apply a gendered lens has not been taken. Our analysis of revenue shows that a disproportionate amount of the projected growth in tax receipts comes from women, who will receive a much lower share of the proposed tax cuts.

NFAW believes that the Government should undertake gender analysis of the Stage 3 Tax cuts as a critical priority, in view of the scale of the reform to ensure a more equitable distribution of income in the Australian community. A gender analysis of the Stage 3 Tax cuts shows that :

• The plan will deliver $39 billion over 4 years to those earning over $200,000 per annum, two thirds of whom are men (PBO, 2023).
• The full cost of $69 billion dwarfs the $14 billion cost of living package to support the most disadvantaged.
• The $9000 annual decrease in tax for those earning over $200,000 a year Is more than double the increase in payments to eligible single parents who earn under $30,000 a year.

NFAW is positive about the Government’s women’s agenda but more needs to be done. The only way to ensure funding for the growing cost of essential services and to address poverty is to increase revenue. The Government needs to lead the public debate on tax reform, including reviewing the Stage 3 Tax cuts.

In addition to the authors named on individual papers, NFAW would like to thank the following advisers for their contribution to the 2023-24 Gender lens on the Budget.

Jen Bushell
Dr Mary Crawford
Erin Gillen
Dr Kathy MacDermott
Louise McSorley

Professor Helen Hodgson Chair Social Policy Committee	Marie Coleman AO PSM Advisor to Social Policy Committee

DOWNLOAD PDFs

Budget Summaries
Budget Overview
Fiscal Outlook
Portfolio overviews and recommendations
Machinery of Government

Net impacts on particular groups of women
01. Impact on young women
02. Impact on older women
03. The Voice: ATSI Women
04. Impact on migrant and refugee women
05. Impact on women with disabilities

Revenue
06. Taxation
07. Superannuation

Physical infrastructure
08. Infrastructure, Urban and Rural
09. Climate change and Energy
10. Housing

Social Services
11. Aged Care
12. Social Security

Education and Training
13. Early childhood education and care
14. Schools
15. Vocational education and training
16. Higher education

Employment
17. Employment – The Care Sector Workforce
18. Paid parental leave

Health
19. Health
20. Reproductive Health

Safety
21. Reducing violence against women and their children

International Aid
22. International development

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GenderLensMay23-AllFiles.zip

Media Release
MEDIA RELEASE - GENDER LENS REVIEW 23

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Authorised by the National Foundation for Australian Women, Canberra: President Ms Jane Madden.

Introduction to the Gender Lens on the October 2022-23 Budget

The first budget of the Albanese Government has signaled welcome changes in direction, particularly in moving toward an evidence-based Women’s Budget Statement and investment in projects that will work to mitigate climate change. It will take time for these initiatives to show changes in women’s economic wellbeing and safety, and this is recognised with costs, for example in child care, climate change and paid parental leave, being acknowledged as an investment in the future.

In this edition of the Gender Lens we have once again focused on the portfolio areas where the Government has made commitments during the election. In this streamlined version of the Gender Lens the usual intersectional analysis of the impact on young women, older women, CALD women and indigenous women is missing as we have not had the capacity to produce a full analysis of this mid-year budget. We also have not examined the detail of the $1.7 billion allocated to Women’s Safety. We plan to return to the full analysis in the May Budget.

In our review of the Wellbeing Budget Statement we have focused on how this intersects with Gender Responsive Budgeting, with particular reference to the portfolios that we have examined in this pared back Gender Lens.

We welcome the increased investment in childcare and the proposed changes to Paid Parental Leave, although important details are yet to be resolved by the new Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce.
There are some notable omissions in the Budget. We recognise the need to limit spending stimulus, but those least able to afford it are the most exposed to the rising cost of living under this budget.

The NFAW Gender Lens on the Budget project commenced in 2014 after the Abbott Government abolished the Women’s Budget Paper, although the gender impact analysis underlying the principle of gender responsive budgeting had not been evident for many years before that. This Government has signalled that it understands that policies affect men and women differently. It is still early stages, but we look forward to policies that are designed in a way that women are supported and not excluded.

Professor Helen Hodgson Chair Social Policy Committee	Marie Coleman AO PSM Advisor to Social Policy Committee

Downloadable PDFs:

01 INTRODUCTION TO THE GENDER LENS ON THE OCT 22 BUDGET

02 PORTFOLIO OVERVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

03 WELLBEING BUDGET FRAMEWORK

04 GENDER-FOCUSED MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT

05 FISCAL OUTLOOK

06 TAXATION and SUPERANNUATION

07 INDUSTRY

08 CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY

09 WELFARE REFORM

10 THE CARE ECONOMY AGED CARE

11 THE CARE ECONOMY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE

12 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

13 HOUSING

14 Contributors

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Authorised by the National Foundation for Australian Women, Canberra: President Ms Jane Madden.

Introduction to the Gender Lens on the 2022 Election Budget

Since 2014 NFAW has undertaken an in-depth analysis of the Budget papers through a Gender Lens. In 2021 the Government reintroduced a Women’s Budget Statement, but our analysis looks behind this year’s document to separate the facts from the spin; new money from reannouncements; to see what is actually being done to respond to the needs of women.

This year our project has taken a different shape as the Budget has been delivered in an election environment. We know that at the 2019 election the Coalition attracted the lowest proportion of women’s votes since the Australian Election Study began examining voter behaviour in 1987.

Earlier this year, when the timing of the election was unclear, we prepared a set of papers on selected issues that matter to women and their economic security: Employment Reform; Welfare Reform; Tax and Superannuation Reform; Integrity, Gender and the Just Use of Power; Climate Change and Housing and Homelessness.

Our budget analysis has been framed around these core issues. But what we can say, after reviewing the budget document as a whole, is that it is short-sighted with little life beyond the election. This year the Budget Papers are particularly opaque, with important tables missing and programs renamed – as if to deliberately avoid external scrutiny.

There is no structural reform – a missed opportunity as the economy recovers from COVID. Once again, social infrastructure that can increase women’s workforce participation and working conditions in feminised occupations has been ignored in favour of hard infrastructure that can employ tradies in favoured electorates.

This analysis has been compiled based on information available to 1 April 2022. Both parties have withheld details of their policies to announce during the election campaign. We hope that these detailed policies take account of the effects of those policies on women and girls.

Professor Helen Hodgson Chair Social Policy Committee	Marie Coleman AO PSM Advisor to Social Policy Committee

DOWNLOAD PDFs

Introduction

Budget Paper PDF: Fiscal Outlook

Employment (Care Sector)

Budget Paper PDF: Employment 

Media Briefing PDF: Employment

Climate Change and Disaster Management

Budget Paper PDF: Climate Change and Disaster Management

Media Briefing PDF: Climate Change and Disaster Management

Housing and Homelessness

Budget Paper PDF: Housing and Homelessness

Media Briefing PDF: Housing and Homelessness

Integrity, Gender and the Just Use of Power

Budget Paper PDF: Integrity, Gender and the Just Use of Power

Media Briefing PDF: Integrity-Gender-and-the-Just-Use-of-Power

Welfare Reform

Budget Paper PDF: Welfare Reform

Media Briefing PDF: Welfare Reform

Tax and Superannuation Reform

Budget Paper PDF: Taxation

Media Briefing PDF: Taxation

Budget Paper PDF: Superannuation

Media Briefing PDF: Superannuation

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MEDIA BRIEFINGS: DOWNLOAD ALL PDFs

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Authorised by the National Foundation for Australian Women, Canberra: President Ms Jane Madden.

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.

The report clearly demonstrates the Federal government can no longer ignore the care sector’s desperate need for adequate funding as new modelling confirms this will improve quality of care, create more jobs for women and grow the economy through increased participation.

According to NFAW’s Chair, Social Policy Committee Professor Helen Hodgson, “Investing in the care economy works three ways: it increases labour market participation, improves employment conditions for carers, and, importantly, it addresses female economic disadvantage by reducing the wage gap.”

The investment model included increased capacity based on estimates of unmet demand and wage increases for personal carers and childcare workers all providers of a vital fabric of our communities.

Over 900,000 Australians who currently provide unpaid care to the elderly, disabled, or children aged under five report that they would like to work more hours in paid employment.  The independent modelling also showed that providing the additional funding needed to enable these workers to work an extra 10 hours a week in paid employment would have a significant economic payoff.

Increased labour market participation would stimulate the whole economy, so that the increased economic growth would underpin greater revenue, offsetting the cost to the Government. The net cost to the budget when the policy is fully implemented would be less than 20 per cent of the direct cost of the additional service delivery.

Labour input would be over 2 per cent higher, and the modelling estimates that annual GDP per person would be $1270 higher, or more than $30 billion a year in aggregate. Average incomes of both women and men would be higher, although women's income would be higher by a greater margin.

Professor Hodgson says, “We were told that the 2020 -21 budget is “all about jobs”. But an analysis of the 2020 budget through a gendered lens shows that most of the jobs and tax cuts are in male dominated areas, including apprenticeships and traineeships, construction, and manufacturing. The female dominated care sector was largely overlooked.

“Government investment in physical infrastructure such as roads is an effective instrument for economic stimulus, but the employment benefits flow to men. This modelling confirms government investment in the care sector would deliver similar economic stimulus, with women the main beneficiaries,” says Professor Hodgson.

“The care sector can no longer be ignored. Funding the care sector is critical to increasing female workforce participation and to improve employment conditions for workers in the care sector.

“The fact is that applying a gendered lens to the economy is the only way to properly value the work done by women,” Professor Hodgson concluded.

Ends

https://nfaw.org/gender-lens-on-the-budget/gender-lens-on-the-budget-2020-2021/

For further information contact

• Professor Helen Hodgson, Chair, Social Policy Committee, National Foundation for Australian Women. Phone: 0418 906 162  or Marie Coleman. Phone: 0414 483 067  

 NFAW acknowledges the support of Women on Boards