The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) is dedicated to promoting and protecting the interests of Australian women, including in 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. We are a feminist organisation, independent of party politics and working in partnership with other women’s organisations. In our advocacy work, we acknowledge the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia and pay our respects to their elders past and present.
Background
The issue of children’s safety in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services has become a central issue for Australian governments and parents around Australia following the arrest of two educators charged with numerous cases of child sexual abuse in Queensland in August 2023 and Victoria in May 2025, and two charged with assault of a toddler in New South Wales in July 2025. An ongoing Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) investigation into child safety in the ECEC sector has been the main source of publicly available information on incidents of abuse and follow up.
We note that the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) published a Review of Child Safety Arrangements under the National Quality Framework (Child Safety Review) in December 2023. Following a consultation period which closed in June 2025, a Decision Regulation Impact Statement (DRIS) was published in mid-August 2025. Federal, state and territory governments have responded with a raft of measures and are working on joint initiatives to improve child safety. Our understanding is that options agreed by Education Ministers in August 2025 will proceed to legislation through the Victorian Parliament (as the host jurisdiction of the National Law) for adoption by other jurisdictions. Timeframes for legislative amendments to take effect will be determined by Education Ministers. Legislation was also introduced and passed by the Australian Parliament in July 2025 to address a number of key issues relating to child safety and quality in ECEC in Australia, regulation, compliance and training.
Improving productivity
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.
The evidence globally and in Australia is clear that advances towards gender equality contribute to nations’ resilience, deliver economic gains and accelerate productivity.i Despite progress on improving gender equality in Australia, women are still more likely to work part time, be underemployed, and experience lower pay and job security compared to men.
NFAW congratulates the Government on its work on Gender Responsive Budgeting and gender impact analysis in its Budget processes. The Working for Women Strategy is an important milestone for gender equality in Australia and a useful framework. There is more to be done to align all government processes to integrate gender equality considerations.
This submission seeks to inform the Economic Reform Roundtable of the productivity benefits from investing in gender equality.
Australia must recognise that supporting gender equality is an investment
Reducing gender wage gaps is not an inefficiency but an overall better utilisation of women’s skills, and so an economy-wide productivity gain.
Building economic resilience in the face of global uncertainty
Introduction
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.
The evidence globally and in Australia is clear that advances towards gender equality contribute to nations’ resilience, deliver economic gains and accelerate productivity.i Despite progress on improving gender equality in Australia, women are still more likely to work part time, be underemployed, and experience lower pay and job security compared to men.
NFAW congratulates the Government on its work on Gender Responsive Budgeting and gender impact analysis in its Budget processes. The Working for Women Strategy is an important milestone for gender equality in Australia and a useful framework. There is more to be done to align all government processes to integrate gender equality considerations.
This submission seeks to inform the Economic Reform Roundtable of the gender implications of building economic resilience and the benefits from investing in gender equality.
Workplace flexibility is improving but is at risk, and there is more to be done
Strengthening budget sustainability
Introduction
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.
The evidence globally and in Australia is clear that advances towards gender equality contribute to nations’ resilience, deliver economic gains and accelerate productivity.i Despite progress on improving gender equality in Australia, women are still more likely to work part time, be underemployed, and experience lower pay and job security compared to men.
NFAW congratulates the Government on its work on Gender Responsive Budgeting and gender impact analysis in its Budget processes. The Working for Women Strategy is an important milestone for gender equality in Australia and a useful framework. There is more to be done to align all government processes to integrate gender equality considerations.
This submission seeks to inform the Economic Reform Roundtable of the gender implications of Budget processes and the advantages of progressing gender equality, particularly focussing on the third theme of strengthening Budget sustainability.
Australia should increase and broaden the tax base, and make it more progressive
This submission is being made by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW).
We welcome the Committee’s invitation to comment on the Australian Human Rights Commission Amendment (Costs Protection) Bill 2023 [Provisions]. NFAW previously made a submission to the Inquiry into the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 which adopted previous recommendations made by NFAW and other women’s organisations to better implement the recommendations of the Respect@Work report. We noted the issue of costs in bringing an action for discrimination is complex, the anticipation of costs can act as a deterrent to initiating proceedings, and lawyers are often reluctant to represent clients who are unable to pay their own legal costs.
We welcome the introduction of this new legislation that addresses both of the issues noted in NFAW’s previous submission and aims to remove the financial barriers that prevent victim-survivors of discrimination and sexual harassment from initiating proceedings. NFAW supports the numerous submissions to the Attorney-General’s Department’s review into an appropriate cost model for Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws which demonstrated a consistent view across the sector that a modified ‘equal access’ costs protection model will best achieve the policy objective of recommendation 25 of the Respect@Work report.
The modified ‘equal access’ costs protection provision will help overcome the deterrent effect that an adverse costs order poses to applicants, and addresses concerns about applicants not being able to cover their own costs (and having to entirely rely on pro bono assistance). We share concerns that a mirroring of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) provisions could reduce the number of lawyers that are willing to represent clients in these matters. This model reflects the public interest in holding people to account for discrimination and sexual harassment. This approach also addresses the power imbalances and resource disparities present in most unlawful discrimination proceedings.
We note the Bill goes beyond the scope of sex discrimination claims and applies to all discrimination matters under federal law. It is important to note that all forms of discrimination involve fundamental power imbalances and all applicants are likely to experience similar financial barriers to initiating proceedings. The intersectional nature of sex discrimination and sexual harassment means that victim-survivors will have often experienced multiple forms of discrimination. There is value in having a consistent approach to costs across all discrimination matters, including reduced complexity.
We also endorse the submission to this Inquiry of the Power to Prevent Coalition, a group of diverse community organisations, unions, academics, peak bodies, health professionals, lawyers, and victimsurvivors. The Power to Prevent Coalition strongly advocated for this reform with 85 organisations endorsing a call for equal access costs protections in discrimination and sexual harassment matters. NFAW works in partnership with many of these organisations.
This submission is being made by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW).
Improving decision-making around future pandemics requires an understanding of the decision-making that underpinned Australia’s COVID-19 response – not only how decisions were made, but also by whom and on what basis. This includes the high-level decisions to focus stimulus on male-dominated occupations, and to exclude higher education and, later, childcare from JobKeeper, and at a more operational level, decisions relating to the procurement of vaccines and anti-virals, the design and conduct of vaccination campaigns and access to and pricing of pharmacy goods such as RATs and hand sanitiser.
As we note below, non-medical decision-making in relation to the COVID pandemic was characteristically conducted behind the screen of Cabinet confidentiality. Accordingly, our submission focuses what can be learned from the policies themselves and from public documentation available to us. We also reflect on the data and observations made at the time in our submission to Senate Select Committee on COVID-19’s Inquiry into the Australian Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic (attached) and on analysis undertaken for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 Gender Lens on the Budget.
In our current submission we will address the following subset of the Panel’s Terms of Reference:
1. Governance including the role of the Commonwealth Government
4. Support for industry and businesses
5. Financial support for individuals (including income support payments and early access to superannuation).
6. Mechanisms to better target future responses to the needs of particular populations (including across genders, age groups, socio-economic status, geographic location, people with disability, First Nations peoples and communities and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities).
Framework For Action And First Nations Gender Justice Institute
This submission is being made by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW).
We respect the right of first nations women and girls to set the priorities for their future, grounded in first nation ways of working and understand of your own needs, as set out in the implementation statement.
The work that the National Foundation for Australian Women does is grounded in the principles of gender lensing, applying a gender lens across all dimensions of policy and legislation. We acknowledge the intersectional challenge of gender lensing, whereby women who are in minority groups experience multiple disadvantagesas their needs lie outside mainstream experience. In particular, indigenous women, girls and communities need specific programs that acknowledge the multiple levels of disadvantage and are not constrained by western ways of thinking.
The themes and priorities set out in the original Wiyi Yani U Thangani Report(2020) set challenges to government, highlighting the areas where governments need to do better, while the ImplementationFramework (2021) focuses developing ways of working that should be incorporated in the programs that are developed. Our experience in gender lensing may offer some insights that can be adapted to assist the Wiyi Yani U Thangani ways of working and principles.
The three themes for this consultation are:
This submission is being made by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW).
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 and working in partnership with other women’s organisations.
Recommendations
Supporting women to achieve VET-based careers –Discussion Paper
This submission is being made by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW). This submission to the discussion paper has been written in partnership with other women’s organisations.
Recommendations