JUNE 2024

We may be going to the polls before the end of the year: the Federal election must be held before May 2025. This June WEL Informed reports on some urgent issues affecting women’s lives, areas where we will focus our positive platform and campaign for this critical election where so much is at stake. To do this effectively, WEL needs your support.

Final EOFY Call out
This is your last chance to earn a tax deduction by donating to WEL via our sister organisation the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) before 30 June. Please give generously and help create a WEL Election Campaign Platform that holds the parties to account and makes gender equality an election decider. 

Make a tax deductible donation today through the National Foundation for Australian Women’s portal.


2024 Federal Budget Afterthoughts

WEL’s initial reaction to the budget was captured in its media release. WEL welcomed the many modest initiatives outlined in the Federal Government’s comprehensive Women’s Budget Statement but stated that many other Budget initiatives fell far short in funding adequacy or remained unfunded.

Further post budget analysis undertaken by ACOSS and the National Foundation of Australian Women (NFAW) in the annual Gender Lens on the Budget papers also highlight the major challenges faced by the Government which it did not address in this budget. ACOSS saw the Budget as tinkering, but not transformative in the context of a slowing economy, rising unemployment, falling spending power, a cost of living crisis, housing insecurity and climate crisis. It judged that the solutions presented were poorly targeted. It criticised the amended Stage 3 Tax Cuts as benefitting more men than women.

But the failure to increase JobSeeker payment was the gaping hole in the Budget’s heart. This payment currently sits at $379 per week with the pension at $548 per week and the minimum wage at $883 per week. NFAW expressed disappointment with the Government’s failure to tackle poverty for the most vulnerable in a systematic way. It has pointed out that mature age women are the largest group by age and gender of Job Seeker recipients and has consistently advocated reform of the social security net.

At the ACOSS Post-Budget event, Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaking via video-link responded to a heartfelt question: When are you going to Raise the Rate to a liveable level? He defended the government’s approach by pointing to other measures designed to relieve cost of living pressures: the energy rebate, changes to bulk billing, cheaper medicines, increases in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, changes in Carer Payment and Carer Allowance and so on. This response did not really satisfy the ACOSS audience.

WEL has called for increases in JobSeeker and Youth Allowance in its media statement issued on 7 May on Domestic Violence responses. The adequacy of these payments is vital to the provision of women’s economic security and their safety when fleeing violence. The calls to Raise the Rate are universal and supported by the government’s own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. Its failure to respond in this year’s budget will follow it to next year’s election.


Federal Government rapid review of gender violence prevention

In response to growing community anger about the number of women killed by partners, the Federal Government has announced a rapid review of evidence-based approaches to prevent gender-based violence.

Co-convened by three senior public servants, a panel of six experts will deliver its final report by the end of the year with part of the research completed by end June. The review has been allocated $1.3 million over two years. 

Jess Hill is a panel member and her recent paper with Michael Salter has stimulated some searching discussion on current approaches to prevention which have not led to any diminution in violence over the last decade.

WEL agrees with the many frontline workers and sector advocates who are citing the continued under-funding of domestic violence services and the urgent need for housing security and permanency as immediate priorities. However, there is much value in reviewing current and best evidence to formulate effective programs for the future.

A recent study, Securing women’s lives: examining system interactions and perpetrator risk in intimate femicide sentencing judgments over a decade in Australia, which has received extensive media coverage stresses that intimate femicide is preventable. The analysis presented in the report identified significant prior “criminal justice system involvement among perpetrators, with 71% having contact with two legal points prior to the intimate femicide” (SMH 18-06-24 p.8).

Evidence from such recent studies will be critical to the rapid review’s work. The Government has indicated that the panel will consult extensively with stakeholders: in WEL’s view learning from service providers about what constitutes effective primary prevention is key to designing community-based interventions.

WEL is urging that the panel’s recommendations must lead to reforms in the criminal justice system with improved risk assessment and management as well as more effective prevention programs.


Women’s rights are human rights: A Federal Human Rights Act on the horizon?

WEL has a long history of campaigning for anti–discrimination legislation and Human Rights so we particularly welcome the extensive inquiry report tabled by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights on 30 May 2024.

The Committee made 17 recommendations, including that the government significantly improve Australia’s Human Rights Framework, which should include comprehensive and effective protection of human rights in legislation through the establishment of a Human Rights Act. The Committee report includes a draft Human Rights Bill prepared by the Human Rights Commission.

Despite some positive amendments to the 1984 Sex Discrimination Act in more recent times, Australia’s anti- discrimination legislation remains a patchwork of increasingly unwieldly acts at the state and federal level, with a focus on reactive models. The onus is on the individual victim to respond to discriminatory treatment and there is limited provision for intersectional discrimination. To add to the complexity Victoria, the ACT and Queensland have Human Rights Acts and the new NSW Government is committed to introducing a Human Rights Act in its first term.


Free+Equal Conference launches campaign for a Human Rights Act

WEL members were excited to participate in the recent Human Rights Commission Free +Equal Conference in Sydney.

The Conference was strategically timed to follow the publication of the Parliamentary Inquiry report. Expert speakers from a wide range of advocacy organisations, as well as businesses, canvassed ways in which a Human Rights Act would improve our access to fundamental rights such as those set out in the UN Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

As an example of the power of a Human Rights Act to pre-emptively influence legal and public service practice, conference speakers suggested that an act setting out fundamental rights could have prevented ‘robo-debt’. 

Designers of the scheme would have had to consider up front the rights that might be infringed through its architecture and operation. Similar suggestions were made about pre-empting the Parents Next scheme, which obliged single mothers to undertake a range of activities to stay on parenting payment.

Women’s rights are of course human rights. Those especially relevant to women include rights to education, equal opportunities at work, equal pay, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (including reproductive health), housing, financial independence, and freedom from violence.

WEL will join the campaign for a Human Rights Act embodying the provisions of CEDAW as part of our 2025 Election Platform.  We would love to hear from you if you are passionate about this campaign and would like to contribute.


WEL supports revisions to the Sex Discrimination Act to prevent discrimination by religious schools

WEL was shocked by the recent dismissal of music teacher ‘Charlotte’ from a Christian secondary school in Sydney, on the basis that a parent had complained that she was in a lesbian relationship.

Section 38 of the Federal Sex Discrimination Act allows religious schools to discriminate against teachers, students and workers on the basis of ‘sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy’. Perceived infringers of rigid patriarchal gender norms are targeted by this long standing and cruel exemption, inserted to placate religious Senators during the 1983 passage of the Act.

Following an inquiry the Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended that the Act be revised to explicitly forbid religious educational institutions from discriminating on the basis of “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status, or pregnancy” against teachers, all other workers, and students’. 

The Government has drafted revisions to the Act in line with the ALRC’s recommendations. We are alarmed that the Opposition appears to be stalling on the revised Bill in the face of strident campaigns from some (but not all) faith organisations. Along with our allies we call on the Government to table the Bill and seek support in the Senate from Independents and the Greens.

Charlotte should be able to remain at the school, appreciated as a member of her Faith community and as a brilliant music teacher. 


Birth Trauma Inquiry sparks interest around the world

WEL is developing a new Reproductive Health Platform for the 2025 election which will be informed by an explosive report on Birth Trauma handed down on 29 May by the NSW Legislative Council’s Select Committee on Birth Trauma.

As the first of its kind, the Inquiry has sparked interest around Australia and the world.  

The Committee held six hearings, received 4,000 submissions, mostly from mothers with lived experience of birth trauma, and heard in-person testimony from dozens of women, as well as experts, medical and health care professionals and advocacy groups.  

The NSW inquiry was announced in June 2023, following new data that showed up to one in three Australian women were experiencing traumatic births. The Australian Birth Experience Study (BESt) from Western Sydney University, published in December 2022, revealed that 28% of women experienced birth trauma and more than one-in-ten experienced some form of obstetric violence.

The first of the report's 43 recommendations is that the NSW Government fully implement Connecting, listening and responding: A Blueprint for Actions – Maternity Care in NSW as soon as practicable and ensure ongoing evaluation of their effectiveness. The Blueprint was issued by the NSW Department of Health in 2022.

Other recommendations include:

  • Ensuring all women have access to continuity of care with a known provider
  • Embedding the birthing mother’s informed consent in all medical interventions during birth.
  • Improvements to psychological support post-partum
  • Training on trauma-informed practice for all maternity health practitioners
  • Separate rooms for women experiencing miscarriage and stillbirth in public hospitals
  • Investment in boosting the midwife and GP obstetrician workforce.
  • Expanding birthing-on-country programs for Indigenous mothers.
  • That the NSW Government advocate to the Federal Government for Medicare rebates for GP delivered pre and postpartum care

The UN recognises obstetric violence as gendered violence, but the Inquiry report avoided the terminology, with expert medical organisations possibly anxious to guard against risk of litigation.

The final report did not call for universal access to midwifery group practice (MGP), a midwifery-led model of continuous care. WEL supports the principle of a midwifery - led model for Continuity of Care and will seek advice on   building the model  into our health platform for our 2024/5 campaign.

WEL notes the report did recognise MGP as a "gold standard" of maternity care and recommended it be expanded.

The NSW Government has three months to respond to the Report. We will be watching with interest, as the 2024/5 NSW Budget includes no explicit provision implementing measures in Maternity Care in NSW, with the commendable exception of an expansion of Aboriginal controlled Birthing in Country services in the Illawarra.


NSW Budget progress on social housing including for women and children escaping domestic violence

WEL has long campaigned to improve housing outcomes for women. We welcome the increased investment in social housing in the NSW 2024/25 Budget handed down on 18 June. This funding is a critical and overdue step, but there will be a need for repeated investment in social housing in future Budgets in order to address the ballooning waiting lists.

The Budget includes:

  • $5.1bn over 4 years, of which $3.3bn is new investment for additional supply and $1.58bn from existing budget commitments. This will provide 6200 genuinely additional social homes, along with the replacing of 2200 existing dwellings to deliver a total of 8400 homes. Half will be designated for women and children escaping domestic violence. This is a very positive measure.   
  • $202.6m over four years for the Aboriginal Housing Office as additional resources on existing budget towards critical maintenance and minor repairs. 
  • $801m over four years as additional resources towards maintenance and minor repairs. 

We are disappointed not to see any commitment of funding for the Home at Last service to provide information and support to older people to help them better access secure, affordable and appropriate housing. In view of the well-documented housing crisis faced by older women, WEL has been a part of the Ageing on the Edge Coalition which has advocated strongly for this in NSW. Similar services are already successfully operating in Victoria and Queensland.

The Budget also contains insufficient investment in domestic and family violence supports, tenancy advice services; homelessness supports; financial counselling; mental health services; community legal services and other community services.


Is the ABS really going to downgrade its Time Use Survey when rebalancing paid and unpaid care is a top priority in Working for Women?

If we are to achieve a fairer gender balance in relation to unpaid care and other types of unpaid services typically provided by women, then we need quality data which can accurately report on the time spent on such activities and how this is improving or not.  This is after all one of the top priorities in the Federal Government’s 10 year Gender Equality Strategy.

WEL is therefore disturbed to learn that the ABS plans to administer a cheaper slimmed down digital version of its current Time Use Survey, which is likely to capture less of the extent and quality of time spent on the interrelated spectrum of care activities which women typically perform. Changes in the nature and gender distribution of this care work are likely to be more difficult to chart.

Two notable ANU academics have outlined how the proposed changes represent a ‘scaling down’ which will reduce the Survey’s accuracy, making women’s unpaid work yet again ‘invisible’ to policy makers.

The ABS has rejected these concerns

WEL notes that governments and the ABS have attempted in the past to drop the Survey for budgetary reasons (as the Gillard Government did in 2013, followed by the Abbot Government). Under pressure from women’s advocacy groups - including WEL and feminist researchers - the Turnbull Government revived the survey in 2018. 

WEL plans to join with allies to press government ministers such as Katy Gallagher to advise the ABS to reconsider their plans – billed as ‘modernising’ the Survey. We will call on members to support this campaign.