MEDIA STATEMENT
For Immediate Release: 21 June 2026
Feminists, women’s organisations and community coalitions have united to express their opposition to the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sex-based Rights) Bill 2026, tabled in the Federal Parliament last week by the Nationals’ Alison Penfold MP.
This is the second attempt in less than a year to weaken the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), and it comes at a time when women’s rights are under pressure on multiple fronts, with Bills before the NSW and SA Parliaments and a disallowance motion in Queensland all seeking to limit abortion care.
Twenty organisations are raising their voices in concern about the latest attack on the Sex Discrimination Act, which seeks to limit protection to discrimination by defining men and women only by their physical characteristics, imposing a strict sex binary and allowing people to establish ‘women-only’ places and services without any justification needed.
Sally Moyle, Chair of the National Foundation for Australian Women said “For generations, feminists have been fighting for recognition of the complexity of our lives. This Bill strikes at the core of gender equality by narrowly defining women. It risks taking us back to a time when an idealised definition of ‘the woman’ only allowed us to be caregivers defined by our reproductive function, who should not own property and were not suited to leadership, capable of rational thought or physically strong.”
Dr Gemma Killen, Executive Director of the Working with Women Alliance said “The Sex Discrimination Act is the cornerstone of gender equality in Australia, and we do not want to see it weakened. We do not want a situation where women are judged as ‘not female enough’ to deserve protection or access to women-only spaces, just because they might look or sound different to the feminine stereotype.”
The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) says the 2026 Federal Budget contains some welcome investments for women’s safety and wellbeing but fails to maintain the momentum needed to drive long-term gender equality in Australia.
In its annual Gender Lens on the Budget report, NFAW acknowledges important measures including funding to improve the Child Support system, investment in the First Nations-led strategy to end family violence, support for young people at risk of housing insecurity, and action on technology-facilitated abuse.
However, NFAW says the broader Budget settings do not match the scale of the challenges facing women and gender equality.
“We celebrate the progress that has been made under the Albanese Government but without sustained investment and leadership this progress can quickly stall,” states Sally Moyle, Chair of NFAW.
Australia recently achieved its highest-ever ranking in the Global Gender Gap Index, rising to 13th globally after years of decline. NFAW says this progress reflects deliberate policy choices and sustained investment in gender equality infrastructure, including the Government’s Working for Women strategy.
But NFAW warns the international environment is becoming increasingly hostile to gender equality, with growing global pushback against women’s rights and human rights protections.
“Gender equality must be treated as an economic and national priority, particularly during periods of uncertainty and social division,” states Sally Moyle.
NFAW also raised concerns about several areas of the Budget where gender impacts appear to have been overlooked, including:
The organisation says gender responsive budgeting must remain central to government decision-making and should be strengthened across all portfolios.
"We know there is no silver bullet on gender equality; real change requires policy reforms across a range of areas.
After more than a decade of neglect, the Albanese Government spent its first years in office addressing some of the most neglected areas of gender equality. And it has paid off. Australia is now ranked 13th in the Global Gender Gap Index, up from a dismal ranking of 50th in 2021. This is to be congratulated.
However, this Budget fails to build on that momentum. It feels like the investments are diminishing and the progress, as a result will likely slow. This is a disappointing Budget from a government that has so far shown that it can make real progress.
There are a few points of light in this Budget:
But there is so much more to do.
The National Foundation for Australian Women welcomes the announcement by the Assistant Minister for Women, Kate Thwaites, on 29 October 2024 that the Australian Government has finalised a new set or agreements for five National Women’s Alliances.
These organisations play a crucial role in coordinating and supporting women’s organisations and feminist movements in Australia and have done so since 2012.
The new arrangements represent some continuity, but also disruption to the sector.
Jane Madden, President of NFAW said: “The loss of the Equality Rights Alliance, which decided not to continue, will be missed. NFAW stands ready to work in close collaboration with the new Working with Women Alliance, led by the YWCA of Canberra. We look forward to participating to ensure the new Alliance is established on feminist principles of collegiality, participation, and openness”.
NFAW expects that working with the new alliance will help to strengthen and hold the government to account for the Implementation of the Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality announced on the 7 March 2024.
About the National Foundation for Australian Women:
NFAW is a leading feminist organisation in Australia dedicated to promoting and protecting women’s rights through policy advocacy, research and education.
www.nfaw.org
For more information, contact:
Jane Madden, President, 0406 384 672
Sally Moyle, Vice President, 0400 167 927
The Government's refusal to include questions on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression in the 2026 Census is a troubling and distressing decision that undermines the inclusion of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community. While the Government claims to be avoiding divisive debates on sensitive topics, its actions have only deepened the sense of exclusion felt by LGBTQIA+ individuals across the nation.
The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) has been closely monitoring these developments with growing concern. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) dedicated considerable time and effort to consulting LGBTQIA+ communities and expert stakeholders on the proposed Census questions, only for their work to be dismissed by political leaders.
Commenting on this week’s reluctant concession to include a single question on sexuality is inadequate Sally Moyle, Vice President of the NFAW says, “this action fails to recognize the diverse experiences of trans, intersex, and gender-fluid communities. While it may seem like a small step forward, it directly contradicts the Government’s own guidelines, published just in July, which emphasize the importance of considering “sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics, and sexual orientation at all stages of the research project”.
The National Foundation for Australian Women calls on the Government to reverse its decision and to allow, for the first time, the Australian Census to properly and fully count the LGBTQIA+ community.
Says Moyle, “this blatant political interference in scientific research further marginalizes a community already too often used as a political football, undermining the potential for accurate health and social policy development”.
About the National Foundation for Australian Women:
NFAW is a leading feminist organisation in Australia dedicated to promoting and protecting women’s rights through policy advocacy, research and education.
www.nfaw.org
For more information, contact:
Sally Moyle, Vice President, 0400 167 927
Helen Hodgson, Chair, Social Policy Committee, 0418 906 162 (note WA)
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:
Despite these positive measures, NFAW is concerned about several critical areas:
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-
National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) Responds to the 2024 Federal Budget: A more ambitious and comprehensive action plan is needed
The Gender Lens which provides insights and a detailed commentary on the 2024-25 Budget will be available from 27 May 2024 on www.nfaw.org.
Canberra, ACT – [15 May 2024] – The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) acknowledges the strides made in the 2024 Federal Budget towards advancing gender equality, as announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. While celebrating notable advancements, the NFAW also calls for greater ambition and comprehensive action to address persistent gender gaps in Australia.
The 2024 Budget, as outlined by the Treasurer, promised to be particularly beneficial for women, and to some extent, it has lived up to this expectation.
The NFAW applauds the changes to the Stage 3 tax cuts and payment of superannuation on Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave: measures that we have called for in previous budget analysis which are significant steps towards financial security for women.
However, there are still significant gender-based challenges that have not been addressed in the Budget. “There are still significant gaps in the provision of front line services in homelessness and gendered violence” Helen Hodgson, Chair of the Social Policy Committee said. “The steps to improve the wages of workers in the care sector, which is a predominately female workforce, are welcome although the structural issues around shortages of workers in this sector still need attention.”
Jane Madden, President of NFAW, said that “While we recognise the challenging context in which the government operates, we urge the government to harness its stated ambition to deliver more robust reforms and substantial investments in gender equality”.
Significant investments have also been made in women's health and in ramping up the focus on genderbased violence, reflecting the government's recognition of these critical areas.
But there is still a lack of transparency around the funding for significant programmes including Family and Domestic Violence Programmes and Housing. These complex portfolios require the cooperation of state governments. The details of funding for the Office for Women is also obscured within the funding of the PM&C portfolio.
The National Foundation for Australian Women has once again brought together a team of more than 20 policy experts —credible women with recognised expertise across all portfolios – to help to unravel some of these complex funding arrangements. This continues the work that we have done since 2014 in providing a detailed analysis of the gender impact of Budget measures.
For further insights and detailed commentary on the 2024 Federal Budget and its implications for women, the Gender Lens on the 2024-25 Budget will be available from 27 May 2024 on www.nfaw.org.
Contact: Helen Hodgson 0418 906 162 (note WA time zone) The NFAW Gender Lens on the Budget is due to be released by 27 May 2024
The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) welcomes the Australian Government's release of its first-ever gender equality strategy, Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality.
NFAW President Jane Madden said it was an urgent necessity for the Australian Government to integrate gender equality across all facets of its policy and decision-making.
"The inception of the gender equality strategy marks a significant advancement," she said.
"We're encouraged by the government's adoption of gender-responsive budgeting, a key mechanism to address and mitigate persistent gender disparities," Madden states.
Since 2014, NFAW has conducted incisive gender analyses of federal budgets. The Strategy arrives as a critical milestone, half a century after the Australian Government declared gender equality a paramount objective.
Ms Madden said the Strategy's ambitious actions were encouraging and noted the improvement in Australia's Global Gender Gap ranking, ascending from 43rd in 2022 to 26th.
"It’s guiding principles and monitoring, and evaluation framework will be essential for measurable progress," she
added.
Professor Helen Hodgson, Chair of NFAW's Social Policy Committee, said the Strategy was a vital first step.
She said, "Sustained and bipartisan support for gender equality initiatives at all government levels will ultimately determine its strength in addressing the persistent and complex inequalities across our society."
The NFAW commended the forthcoming inclusion of superannuation contributions within the government-funded Paid Parental Leave, starting July 2025.
"Recognising paid parental leave as a fundamental workplace right, akin to annual leave, is critical. Correcting this discrepancy is long overdue," asserts Professor Hodgson.
The NFAW calls on the federal Opposition and all parliamentarians to endorse the Strategy wholeheartedly and for tangible, committed funding from the Australian Government to ensure the Strategy's success and longevity.
About the National Foundation for Australian Women:
The NFAW is a leading advocate for gender equality in Australia, dedicated to promoting and protecting women's rights through policy advocacy, research, and education.
For more information, contact:
Jane Madden, NFAW President – 0406 384 672
Sally Moyle, NFAW Vice President – 0400 167 927
7th March 2024
Since the 1970s, each decade of women’s work in the moving image in Australia can be read as a significant cultural location. One of the most momentous in Australia was the 1970s, which saw the emergence of feminist culture and the revival of the film industry. This year, the Pamela Denoon Lecture, Australia’s longest running and most prestigious feminist lecture, shone a spotlight on this era, and a significant event in 1973 called Womenvision.
Organised by The National Foundation for Australian Women, it was presented as a panel of trailblazing women who looked back and joined the dots to 2022, to review the status, participation, and experience of women in Australian film and television today. That panel: Womenvision Revisited, hosted by award-winning social justice journalist and author Ginger Gorman, recognised the significance of the 1973 event as “the first major [national] enterprise of the women’s movement”.
In 1973 there was barely an industry and women found it difficult to make films, but Womenvision created a momentum for change. From this time women stepped up and demanded and lobbied to be included. And according to panellist, writer director Kim Farrant, “so many women have shown their talent, and that’s just that cream rising to the top, they just keep having an incredible voice”.
Leaders of industry, and women who attended the 1973 event joined the panel: director/writer Kim Farrant (Strangerland, The Weekend Away ); producer Sue Maslin AO (The Dressmaker, and Executive Producer of Brazen Hussies); producer Sheila Jayadev (Way out West, Ali’s Wedding); Professor Lisa French (author and leading authority on women in Australian film and editor/ co-author of the book WomenVision), director/cinematographer Jane Castle (60 Thousand Barrels, When the Camera Stopped Rolling) and Director/ Producer Pat Fiske (Rocking the Foundations, When the Camera Stopped Rolling).
Pat Fiske described the atmosphere of the event, the energy and excitement.
Sue Maslin observed the debt that women in the industry owe to these trailblazers: “I completely owe my career to those women …[who] realized that we were not going to have women’s stories in our culture unless women did get the cameras get the sound equipment and just get out there and make the work”.
It was a completely different era but according to the Maslin, today, “the debate is just as valid”, and “diversity is central to our storytelling”. As Fiske noted, the event caused significant momentum, notably spawning women’s groups and then some of those women organized the first International Women’s Film Festival in Australia, showcasing female creativity and offering a context for women’s cinema.
As a woman of colour, Shelia Jayadev reflected on the personal and structural barriers, in particular fighting against the idea that diverse stories are ‘niche’ rather than something that the general public wants. Although Australia is diverse, she said “we’re not seeing those stories reflected on screen as much as we should’. The biggest fight for her is to shift thinking, to get the exhibitors and the distributors on board to “reflect what Australia looks like”, to be able to make films at the same scale rather than with a micro budget because it’s niche. Being female as well as looking different makes it harder to break through.
Farrant argued for intersectional considerations because: “if we’re not seeing ourselves reflected the colour of our skin, our gender, our sexual preference, our disability, our fullness, all of it, then how can we rise a sense of self-worth that healthy self-worth that we all need?”
Diversity seen this way is essential for an individual to mature, and for social cohesion and the range of identities we can inhabit.
Women in careers such as cinematography have had a harder time than some other crafts. Cinematographer Jane Castle has experienced great success but knows that change is slow. Her mother, Lilias Fraser (the subject of Castle’s When the Cameras Stopped Rolling), single-handedly shot her first film in 1957. The ABC picked it up and were “screening it every night but when she went to apply for a job as a cinematographer, … they just laughed out of the room”. According to Castle, “we still have this dreadful statistic of how few women’s cinematographers are shooting feature films”.
Kim Farrant, who is working currently in Hollywood, and whose film Weekend Away (2022) was number one on Netflix, acknowledged how significant mentors are. She also outlined the challenge women directors encounter up against male dominated teams, a lonely and often alienating journey if you are one woman with thirty men. Castle also spoke of women having to work harder to gain respect from male crew. Women’s issues such as the experience of violence, are not regarded by gatekeepers as what audiences will want to see, despite the large percentage of women who have encountered such violence. The panel discuss a breadth of issues such as wellbeing or childcare. An innovative solution to the childcare dilemma was that of sharing a job to achieve a doable work life (family) balance.
The panel pondered what is being done now to improve the position of women in film, which for features in Australia has women as around 34% of producers, 16% of directors and 24% of writers. Maslin was the founding president of the Natalie Miller Fellowship, which offer screen industry career fellowships, and both Maslin and French have been on Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce, an initiative to support women’s careers and creativity. Gender Matters has increased the gender balance in creative teams, supported women’s businesses, funded storytelling and attachments, whilst achieving soft results such as increasing women’s confidence submitting applications and changing funding agency and film industry practices.
These initiatives are valuable and have an outcome, but there needs to be a whole of industry commitment to change to achieve equality and equity. It is not about fixing women but that fairer film and television workplaces must be built.
The panel concluded with calls to action: listening to women, including women as leaders and gatekeepers to improve their autonomy over their work and enable women’s voices to be heard. Industry leaders must commit to inclusion.
*Many thanks to Broad Agenda for allowing NFAW to share this article.