Bianca Hartge-Hazelman* discusses what the 2020 Federal Budget ought to contain in order to support Australian women.
There are calls for the Federal Budget to address a worsening gender crisis that’s hurting women in the areas of financial equity and domestic violence.
In all the years that I have covered the Budget, typically unveiled in May, there has been little to address systemic financial inequalities in the workforce and society, as seen largely in gender gaps in paid and unpaid work.
This year I’m hoping that a female-lens will be applied to the Budget given that the ‘Motherhood penalty’ kicked into full-swing with Covid-19 home-schooling and as containment measures forced the closure of many female-dominated services industries such as food and accommodation services, triggering an early spike in female joblessness relative to male.
But some female business leaders aren’t as hopeful which perhaps is unsurprising given the government’s track record on women’s issues and that only a quarter of the ministry is female – hardly representative of the 51 per cent of Australia’s who are women.
“Realistically, the current conservative legislators have proven time and time again that they are not prioritising those most affected by both the outdated attitudes towards women in Australian nor those most impacted by Covid-19, women, “ said Michelle Redfern Founder of Advancing Women in Business & Sport.
Measures to eliminate violence against women
Redfern is calling on the government to increase funding towards programs aimed at eliminating violence against women.
Currently there is no national coordination effort at a government level to address the crisis of violence against women.
Australia is seeing an increase of violence against women, which in part has been exacerbated by the global Covid-19 pandemic and various lockdowns.
“These rates of violence against women are not decreasing and the impact on the economy is estimated to be greater than $21 billion annually,” said Redfern.
“The government must address the issue of violence against women with a legislated, coordinated response at a national level, or effort will remain fragmented, and agencies currently tasked with providing remediating and emergency response will become (even more) overwhelmed.”
Reinstate the women’s Budget paper
The Economic Security 4 Women (eS4W) and partner organisation Femeconomy are also calling on the government to deliver a Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) by reinstating the annual gender budget statements and integrating gender impact assessments into budgetary decision-making processes.
In 1984 Australia was the first country in the world to develop, apply and implement GRB and had a 30-year history of delivering the Women’s Budget Statement (WBS) until 2014.
The annual statement was launched under the Hawke-Keating Labor Government in 1983.
However, in 2014 under the Abbott Liberal-National Coalition Government, the Statement was not published.
“Women have already been adversely affected by COVID-19, a reinstatement of WBS to monitor steps to reduce any further disadvantage during the recovery stage would assist in mitigating economic growth,” said Sharen Page, spokesperson for Economic Security 4 Women (eS4W).
Close the Gender Pay Gap
eS4W said the Federal Government can help narrow the Gender Pay Gap by legislating above average wage increases for sectors and professions with a high proportion of female workers such as nurses, social workers, teachers and carers.
In addition to this, there are also calls to amend the equal pay legislation by ensuring women in historically underpaid female-dominated industries receive the same remuneration as men in different but equal-value work.
The gender pay gap remains significant with women earning, on average, 13.9 per cent less than men for full time work. Occupations that have a high concentration of women in the workforce tend to have lower incomes.
Close the gender gap in superannuation
In the current superannuation system it’s not mandatory for superannuation to be paid on parental leave.
And as most women take the bulk of this parental leave, most women forfeit their super once a child arrives until they are back in the workforce.
Legislative changes are needed to ensure all employers continue to provide the superannuation guarantee to staff while on parental leave regardless of gender.
* Bianca Hartge-Hazelman is the editor and founder of the Financy Women’s Index and women’s money publication Financy.
This article first appeared at au.finance.yahoo.com.
