Government office space in Gungahlin is to be refurbished under the Territory’s 2022-23 Budget to create flexi hubs and expand the ACT’s Flexible Work Program to promote women’s participation in the workforce.
Releasing the 2022-23 Women’s Budget Statement, earlier this week, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the program would allow ACT Public Service employees to commute to a flexi hub located in their nearest town centre.
Mr Barr said the coming year’s Women’s Budget Statement identified where new investments in the 2022-23 Budget were expected to expand efforts to improve the wellbeing of women and girls.
“Work is continuing to embed considerations of gender in policy development and decision-making, through the budget process and outside it,” Mr Barr said.
“Women’s physical and mental health and wellbeing continues to be a priority for the Government,” he said.
“In this Budget, we continue to reduce inequity across the community by removing out-of-pocket costs of abortion services and improving affordability and access for both medical and surgical abortions.”
Mr Barr said model standards would be set within the ACT Public Service to increase women’s workforce participation and support women who had been out of the workforce for an extended period.
He said that as women made up over half of Canberra’s homeless population the ACT also committed to the continuation specialist homelessness programs that commenced during the COVID-19 pandemic and further expanding the capacity of frontline homelessness services.
“It is essential that women and girls feel safe in order to fully and equally participate in our community,” the Chief Minister said.
“The ACT Government is funding a range of initiatives to address domestic and family violence and to prevent and respond to sexual assault.”
The Women’s Budget Statement can be accessed at this PS News link.
