WEL-Informed August 2025
GREAT EXPECTATIONS AS NEW PARLIAMENT OPENS
Women MPs in the ascendant
We were inspired to see the crowds of women MPs at the opening of the 48th Parliament in Canberra on 22 July.
There are 69 women in the House of Representatives, a new record. Of them, 50 are Labor but just 6 are Liberals. There are now fewer female Liberals than independents (8) in the lower house.
Cabinet has for the first time in our history a majority of women: 12 of the 23 Ministers (52.2%). Out of 42 total Ministers, 19 (45.2%) are women.
Governor General, Sam Mostyn, sets out government agenda - Working for Women to drive action for women’s equality
In her speech to open the first sitting of the new federal parliament, the Governor General highlighted that the government will continue to implement its Working for Women strategy to ‘drive national action to end gender-based violence and put women's economic equality at the centre of what they do’.
WEL has written to Katy Gallagher expressing our strong support for Working for Women.
Nevertheless, we remain concerned about the new National Women’s Alliances’ capacity to articulate new and emerging issues affecting Australian women (see June WEL-Informed).
STILL UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR UNIVERSAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
The shocking revelations about child safety in market driven sectors of early childhood education and care is an example of how the slow, staged reform process envisaged by Working for Women can be disrupted and reinforces the need for ongoing broad consultation and feminist advocacy.
During the first 2025 sitting, the government rushed through legislation to revoke funding from childcare providers that breach the law, fail to meet the National Quality Standard on safety and quality, or operate in ways that endanger children. Commonwealth officers can now conduct unannounced spot-checks to detect fraud and non-compliance across the sector.
Yet governance of the sector remains fragmented across the Commonwealth, states and territories. WEL supports calls from advocacy group, the Parenthood and others for the establishment of an independent National Commission to ensure the quality, integrity and safety of the ECEC system.
From a longer term perspective, the shape of the government’s proposed universal early childhood education and care system remains unclear following a Productivity Commission Inquiry recommending adjustments to childcare subsidies but within the context of the present market driven framework dominated by for profit providers.
We are not confident that the just announced government commission of private consulting giant Deloitte to help design a universal childcare system will produce the ECEC equivalent of Medibank/ Medicare, a system designed by experts and public servants and driven by visionary Ministers.
The Commonwealth Department of Education has stated that the object of the project is to review the costs of delivering ECEC.
The engagement of Deloitte to undertake a data gathering exercise on delivery costs testifies to the immense complexity of the current market-based system and the slow road to a transformation which puts the interests of children and parents first. Listen to Professor Deb Brennan outline the challenges ahead in a recent interview with Fran Kelly HERE.
WOMEN AND GIRLS SUFFER A SPIKE IN HOMELESSNESS
During the first sitting week Homelessness Australia reported that women and girls are at the centre of the worsening homelessness crisis. Its report reveals an alarming 20% spike in women and girls who were already homeless when seeking help over the term of the last government.
WEL looks forward to the Minister for Women’s 2026 IWD Status of Women Report Card for an update on Working for Women’s indicators on the ‘percentage of people who feel safe in their home' information missing from the 2025 Report card’.
UNSEEN WOMEN EXHIBITION
The exhibition UNSEEN Women: Domestic Violence, Disability and Homelessness opened at NSW Parliament House on 5 August showcasing powerful artworks by women with ‘lived experience’. It was attended by over 250 people.
The UNSEEN Arts Hub is a multimedia project which gives voice to women’s homelessness and housing insecurity. WEL NSW was instrumental in initiating UNSEEN in 2020, partnering with Belinda Mason, OAM, the founder of the Museum of Understanding Through Tolerance and Inclusion (MUTTI).
It started as part of WEL’s campaign on older women’s homelessness. Led by Dr Jane Bullen, WEL’s housing policy lead, we auspiced a grant from the City of Sydney for the first activation of UNSEEN comprising a series of events in the CBD in 2021 and used our networks to help contact project participants and audience members to attend. Since then, the UNSEEN mobile Arts Hub has been rolled out to other locations around Sydney and NSW.
At the exhibition opening, presentations were made by Belinda Mason, Auntie Dixie Link Gordon, Alex Greenwich MP, Jane Bullen and Dieter Kneirim from MUTTI as well as eleven of the 30 project participants from across NSW. Read Jane’s speech HERE.
Dr Jane Bullen, WEL National Co-ordinating Committee
More information on UNSEEN can be found here and on MUTTI’s LinkedIn. Sydney readers can view the exhibition weekdays between 9:00am to 5:00pm until 28 August.
WEL PARTNERS WITH SHARE FOR REPRODUCTIVE EQUITY
WEL is excited by the work being undertaken by young activists in Sexual Health Advocates for Reproductive Equity (SHARE) to promote greater access to free and appropriate contraception, a demand that is consistent with our women’s health policy. Kay Anastassiadis, WEL National Convenor, is now working as an ally with SHARE to help build their campaign.
SHARE believes that there is a mistaken assumption that Australia enjoys equitable, affordable access to contraception in Australia. They are dedicated to ensuring that access to sexual and reproductive health care is recognised as a fundamental human right.
The Albanese Government has made good progress in improving affordability and access to contraception. We now need much greater pressure on the government to achieve its National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030 priority deadline to ‘create an Australia where everyone can access safe, affordable, and timely sexual and reproductive healthcare’.
VICTIMS VOICES: SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
WEL believes a well-resourced Human Rights Commission empowered by an Australian Human Rights Act is essential.
The Albanese Government appears to place no priority on developing a Human Rights Act for Australia in its second term. Surprisingly Working for Women does not consider how this might simplify and strengthen access to justice where human rights have been contravened.
Consistent with our policy we will be working with allies to campaign for an Act along the lines recommended by the 2023 Senate Inquiry and unanimously endorsed by government members on the Committee of Inquiry.
On 25 June, the Human Rights Commission launched Speaking from Experience. WEL’s Jozefa Sobski participated in the launch of the report, which centres on the voices of people with lived experience of workplace sexual harassment.
Dr Anna Cody, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, conducted the event at the South Australian Working Women’s Centre. It featured a panel discussion with participants from the forcibly displaced people’s network, workers from the nine Pacific islands and Timor-Leste participating in Australia’s PALM scheme, young workers and women workers. They concluded that prevention of sexual harassment at work is best tackled as a workplace occupational health and safety matter which demands legislative responses.
WEL welcomes the report’s reiteration of Recommendation 27 of the Commission’s ground breaking 2022 report Respect@Work that: ‘A disclosure process be established that enables victims of historical workplace sexual harassment matters to have their experience heard and documented with a view to promoting recovery. The Australian Government should fund the Commission to facilitate this process’.
Victims of sexual assault in the ADF still waiting to have their voices heard
Shortly after the launch of Speaking from Experience we learnt that nine months after the release of the report from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, Australian Defence Force victims of sexual assault in the military are still waiting to have their voices heard.
WEL urges the Minister for Defence to act on the recommendation from the Royal Commission and establish a dedicated inquiry into sexual violence in the military.
NATIONAL WOMEN’S ALLIANCES MEMBERS’ FORUM
WEL policy emphasises the critical role of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) in driving gender equality in the workplace.
As a WEL representative on the National Women's Alliances, Jozefa Sobski participated in a members' forum with Mary Wooldridge, CEO of WGEA on implementation of the March 2025 amendment to the Workplace Gender Equity Act. This amendment requires Australian businesses with 500 or more employees to make demonstrable progress on gender equality targets. These changes apply to nearly 2,000 employers and will impact 3.9 million Australian employees. We were disappointed that the LNP and some of the feminist Teals failed to support the amendment when it was legislated.
Under the amendment, employers will need to take action by choosing three targets from a menu of numeric and action-oriented targets that set specific, time-bound and measurable objectives. Companies have until May 2026 to select targets.
Moderated by NWA Director Dr Gema Killen, the forum discussed issues raised such as whether targets drive ‘tick box’ behaviour; whether and how intersectional barriers would be addressed, and what data would be collected and published.
WGEA will be supporting employers needing assistance. Employers who fail to take action without a reasonable excuse within the time frame for compliance can be publicly named. Mary Wooldridge encouraged participants in the forum to examine the WGEA website for target information as well as the Data Explorer portal.
WHAT NEXT FOR WEL?
Following WEL’s major federal election campaign earlier this year, the WEL National Coordinating Committee (NCC) has been undertaking a major review of WEL’s work. We aim to determine WEL’s future directions, consider where our lobbying activities can achieve greatest positive impact and determine what we need to put in place to make this work.
The NCC met for a full day session in July. The focus of our considerations was firmly on the key question: How can we add value, as a feminist advocacy group, in the current and future social and political environment? In discussing this, the NCC has been conscious of the need to work collaboratively with other social advocacy groups and of WEL’s limited resources.
An important aspect of WEL’s work, one which sets us apart from many other advocacy groups, is that we advocate for equality and justice for women over a broad platform. Our policy platform currently encompasses ten major policy areas.
While we will continue this broad advocacy work, resource constraints mean that we will be most effective if we run a small number of highly active (and winnable) campaigns at any one time. Two areas being discussed are:
- The online radicalisation of youth, including the deployment of AI, and how this is influencing gender norms.
- Gender based violence in a broader context, particularly as experienced by younger women.
The review of WEL’s future work is continuing and your views on WEL’s future directions would be highly welcomed.
Please send your comments or suggestions by 29 August to: [email protected].
CELEBRATING LORRAINE SLADE
Lorraine is a very longstanding member of WEL and was on the WEL NSW Executive Committee for over two decades. She is now a member of the WEL National Coordinating Committee. Lorraine is a generous and committed lifetime feminist who brings a calm and respectful persistence to her dealings with colleagues and members. She particularly supports WEL to maintain our complex administrative arrangements in the service of our campaigns. WEL warmly wishes her a very happy birthday!
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