Women’s groups have a specific seat in their own right at the upcoming Tax Forum and Marie Coleman of the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) has been selected to represent the Equality Rights Alliance (ERA).

ERA and the NFAW are currently completing a commissioned project for the Office for Women on factors affecting women’s work-force participation, covering topics such as child care costs, equal pay, effective marginal tax rates and the tax and transfer system, and superannuation. Helen Hodgson of ATAX at the University of New South Wales is writing the associated technical paper.

The ERA/NFAW submission to the Tax Forum will draw on the consultations which have taken place  in July and August, and the views of women’s groups affiliated with ERA and Economic Security for Women, among other groups.

Close cooperation in preparing for the Forum is taking place with ACoSS and other bodies already invited. NFAW has also specifically nominated several women with solid feminist credentials and expertise in tax to the Treasury for places on the second tranche of invitations.

Research on tax and housing has been commissioned from The Australia Institute, and discussions are taking place with the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling.

Industrial Relations Minister Richard Della-Riva is reported as having rejected the claim that the largely female community services workforce is significantly underpaid.

The arguments being used suggest that the Victorian Government just isn’t interested in getting equal pay for Victorian women.

For example, the Victorian Government argues that it is the fault of women in the community services sector that they don’t do as well as women doing the same work in the government sector.

In fact, it is the fault of governments who are funding services.

• Governments know community sector employers cannot pass the costs of increased wages onto their elderly and disabled clients.

• They know the employees in the sector can be made to do without real wage increases year after year because they care about their clients.

• They know that this doesn’t apply to big public service departments.

• They know the work outside the public services isn’t being properly valued, and they know that the people who are losing out are overwhelmingly women.

The fact is, they don’t care.

WEL Australia, the Women’s Equity Think Tank and the National Pay Equity Coalition have just lodged their final joint submissions in the ongoing equal pay case. The case concerns wage rates in the social, community, home care and disability services industry.

Fair Work Australia has already found that work in the female-dominated industry is undervalued, and that the undervaluation is gender-related.

The most recent submissions dealt with how the gender-related undervaluation was to be remedied. FWA asked for submissions on the extent to which wage rates in the SACS industry are lower than they would otherwise be because of gender considerations, and how the amount of the gender related undervaluation of the work of the classifications in the industry should be calculated. It also asked for views on the amount or amounts, either dollar or percentage, to be included in any equal remuneration order.

The women’s organisations submitted that there are gender considerations affecting the valuation of all aspects of the work in the industry, including the nature of the work itself, the funding models adopted by governments for the industry, the supply of and demand for labour, the value put on employee credentials, and the access of employees to wage increases through enterprise bargaining.

Take a look at our submission.

Question to Minister Jenny Macklin, Senators Trish Crossin, Claire Moore, et al: since when did feminism condone compulsory loss of rights for  categories of women, for example a sole parent, because some of them may have needed “protection”?

This paternalistic (maternalistic) policy making undermines the idea that women are full citizens with equal rights. Women who are in need of protection have the right and obligation to decide, maybe collectively, whether they hand over their rights to others. Please don’t use women’s needs as an excuse for bad policy as it sounds a bit like Philip Ruddock wearing his Amnesty badge while persecuting asylum seekers.

Read the report here and the submissions here.

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Taking into account the failure of the Australian Fair Pay Commission to make an adjustment in 2009, WEL has recommended that the Minimum Wage Panel grant an increase of 9 per cent in the minimum wage. Such an increase would help to restore a minimum rate that is fair and bears a reasonable relation to living standards in the wider Australian community.

WEL’s submission focuses on living standards, promoting social inclusion,  and the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value.