The NDIS needs funding security to ensure we can get the Scheme right, including stopping independent assessments which will hurt women with disability. Disabled women* are already finding it hard to access the NDIS, with only half as many participating as men, and the proposed independent assessments will exacerbate this by building even greater barriers to accessing a Scheme which is built to support the male experience of disability. Apparently, it’s all in the name of saving $700m.
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.
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.
Budget 2018-19 is not a great Budget for Women. That said, it is the first Budget for some time when there have been two women (Sen. Michaelia Cash and Kelly O’Dwyer) members of the Expenditure Review Committee, and where the Minister for Women (O’Dwyer) is an avowed feminist and has expressly required the Office for Women to assist her in her role on the ERC.
With ABS data on wages and employment producing disquiet about the growth forecasts underpinning this Budget, there is cause for concern about the overall economic environment. The reports on housing affordability set against the news on incomes equally are causes for apprehension. NFAW is quite clear in its view that women and girls can only benefit from a strong economy where there are realistic plans for bringing the Budget back into balance over the cycle.
Budget 2016-17 fails to bring Australian women into the centre of the economy and pushes many further into poverty. Cuts to overseas aid hurt vulnerable women in our region.
It has been the practice since 1984 for Federal Governments to produce a Women’s Budget Statement as one element of the official Budget Papers. In 2014 this practice ceased. There has been no explanation from the Government. It is regrettable that the Government has made this decision.
NFAW, with other women’s organisations, is committed to examining the potentially differential impacts of policies and their outcomes for men and for women, and whether the consequences of policies, intended or unintended, may adversely impact on women. There is an average gap of 17 per cent between the incomes of men and women.
