5 September, 2010
Women and the 2010 election
Marian Sawer, ABC The Drum Unleashed
3 September 2010
There have been two weeks of debate about the seemingly unfamiliar prospect of minority government – despite all those minority governments at state and territory levels over the past 20 years. Meanwhile something else has completely slipped below the radar. Read more… »
3 September, 2010
Equal Pay Day Saturday 4 September
Equal Pay Day 2010 – Saturday September 4…This year, we need to work 66 extra days to earn the same as men
31 August, 2010
Underpaid and undervalued : A woman’s work is never done
The growing pay gap between the sexes is now higher than it was at the height of the women’s liberation movement and three out of four Australians say they want it fixed.
18 August, 2010
The Fairness Agenda : How do the major parties rate?
At the end of a long 5 week campaign, the Women’s Electoral Lobby, as one of Australia’s enduring women’s activist organisations, has scored the major social policies of each party for fairness against a Feminist Policy Framework.
“Regrettably, there has been too little focus this campaign on good social policy.” said Kathleen Swinbourne, WEL’s Elections Coordinator “We are very disappointed that few of the issues that make a fair society and help women – and men – to lead their lives, have been discussed much at all. Issues like fairness in pay, child care, family law and workplace culture were sadly missing.”
The Greens performed better than Labor, which in turn outscored the Coalition in terms of fairness and equity in social policy. While Labor have made a commitment to pay equity and improvements in terms of workplace culture, there are some areas where they need a lot more focus. And apart from paid parental leave, which scored positively for the Liberal Party, most of its policies just don’t cut it.
Or download the postcard to hand out in your area. If you want hard copies let us know and we’ll do our best to get them to you.
17 August, 2010
Think WEL – some more election pointers
With the election only days away, we ask you to consider who is more likely to make Australia fairer.
WEL has produced fact sheets on some of the key problems that still face women. We then assessed whether any of the major parties’ policies address these problems. Have a look at the facts and policy assessments on this site and think about how you will vote.
We all have two votes and some of us choose to vote differently for the Reps and the Senate because no one party meets our criteria. Be aware that your preferences may be counted, so make sure your senate vote goes where you want it. There are two ways of voting; above the line and let the candidate/party decide your preferences, or below the line and you decide where your preference vote may go. You need to check the lodged tickets to see what the candidate/party have chosen. Note, some candidates hedge their bets by lodging more than one preference ticket. For example, in NSW Cheryl Kernot, the Democrats and Carers have all split their preferences equally between Labor and Coalition.
The senate will be important because neither major party is scoring as well as the Greens on key gender equity issues. Apart from our assessments, the Greens also rated well with the Equal Rights Alliance http://www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au/WomenSpeak_Election_recommendations.pdf and the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance AHCRA_Media_release_11_August__FINAL WEL’s summary of how the parties’ policies faired against our feminist framework will be available shortly.
The choice between the two major parties is sometimes not so clear. The ALP has some fairness runs on the board over the last two plus years. The Coalition still carries the weight of its many omissions when in power. There hasn’t been much new policy in our areas of concern.
Neither of the major parties does well on general fairness scores on changing the social barriers, such as discrimination, that create disadvantages. Both assume individual effort is the solution to the problem and penalise those who fail to improve their lot. Their campaigns have emphasized economics, fear and self interested money bribes and have not offered voters any clear visions for making society fairer!
The old claim is we get the government we deserve. If you feel Australia deserves more than this campaign offers, help us change political priorities. We need to put feminist fairness on the social policy agenda of which ever government is in power.
Eva Cox
So read our policy assessments in the next couple of days and think WEL before you vote!
