Days out from the 2013 Federal Election the Greens have come out on top as the party with the best policies for women this election according to the Women’s Electoral Lobby.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby asked the three major parties to respond to its five asks for the election and rated each of them between 0 and 5 based on their responses.

The five asks are:

- Support Sole Parents: reinstate sole parents payment for all single parents with children under 18.

- Make Super Fair: provide superannuation credits to those with caring responsibilities and pay super on Paid Parental Leave.

- Enforce equal pay: adequately resource the Pay Equity Unit.

- Improve children’s services: additional funding for out of school hours care.

- Choice for All: increase the Medicare rebate for abortion by $200.

WEL National Chair Melanie Fernandez, said the Greens had better policies than the Labor and Liberal parties across the board, though Labor performed the best on early childhood policies and the Liberal party outflanked Labor on delivering fairer superannuation.

“The key deciders were the Greens commitment to reintroducing the Sole Parents Payment for parents with children under 18, to continue Fair Work Australia’s Equal Pay Unit and their support for free, safe access to abortion.

“These policies will address some of the key areas where current policy is failing women.

“On equal pay day, highlighting the 64 extra days women need to work to earn the same amount as men on average, it is important to highlight that continued support for the Equal Pay Unit is crucial.

“As well as this, access to reasonable support for those with caring responsibilities and access to a safe abortion should not still be out of reach for Australian women.”

Ms Fernandez said the scorecard aimed to provide a quick and easy overview of where the parties stood on the issues WEL had identified as most important for women this election.

“Addressing some of the inequalities that still exist for women has not been high on the agenda during this election campaign.

“This scorecard highlights where parties are doing well and where they aren’t so everyone going to the polls on September 7 can make the most informed decision on who to vote for as possible.