WEL-Informed October 2025
WEL AGM - 6 December 2025
You are invited to attend WEL’s 2025 Annual General Meeting online via Zoom at 2:30pm AEDT on 6 December.
Only financial members can participate and vote at the AGM. If you are not sure of your membership status, send us an email on [email protected].
RSVP is essential and will be available via a button on the WEL website in the coming weeks. Zoom meeting details and links to the meeting documents will be sent to members who have RSVP'd.
If you have expertise in one or more of WEL’s policy areas or have communications, digital campaigning or fundraising skills, we would love you to contribute to WEL’s advocacy work. Please consider nominating to be a member of the National Coordinating Committee. Go to wel.org.au for more information on how to nominate and for information on WEL’s work.
We look forward to seeing you online on 6 December!
‘We must confront an uncomfortable truth’: ASX 100 companies drop the ball on gender equality in leadership
On 9 September 2025 WEL participated in the launch of Chief Executive Women’s 2025 Senior Executive Census.
Each year, starting in 2016, CEW releases a comprehensive analysis of women's representation in executive leadership across Australia's largest companies. The latest survey reveals that there are only 27 CEOs in the ASX 300, while 80% of so-called CEO ‘pipeline’ roles are held by men and a quarter of companies went backwards in senior women’s representation.
CEW President Helen Conway commented on the disappointing data: ‘After nine years of tracking women's representation in executive leadership we must confront an uncomfortable truth: traditional approaches aren't delivering the progress Australia needs’.
Helen Conway went on to say that ‘many companies are treating gender equality as a discretionary rather than a matter of substance …. People are not held accountable for gender equality in the same way they might be held accountable for financial results’.
During the panel discussion, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody predicted that The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Setting Gender Equality Targets) Act, passed on 28 March this year, will accelerate action on gender equality by large Australian employers. It will require all organisations with 500 or more employees in Australia to improve on or achieve measurable targets to progress gender equality in their workplaces. Without creditable action and targets companies will risk losing government contracts and access to government tenders.
Companies with 100 or more employees are already required to report to WGEA against gender equality indicators. WEL’s Representation and Leadership Policy advocates reducing this threshold to more than 50 employees.
Putting a gender lens on climate change policy
The Federal Government released its first comprehensive National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) in September 2025, developed by the Australian Climate Service. The report highlights the drastic increasing impact of climate change on Australian communities.
It’s not surprising that a range of environmental groups have expressed their disappointment with the Federal Government’s recently announced emissions target for 2035 of 62%-70% from 2005 levels.
WEL’s 2025 Federal Election policy on Climate Change and Gender focuses on the gender implications of climate change: the impact on women is likely to be greater as they shoulder the burden of care, are more disadvantaged in remote regional communities, are often excluded from decision-making and, in a time of crisis, gender-based violence may be exacerbated.
That is why WEL considers that a gender lens on these impacts and the adaptation strategies required is essential for planning and policy-making. It appears to be absent in recent reports.
WEL calls for a gender impact analysis of all initiatives taken to address climate change including the Future Made in Australia program which should deal with issues beyond employment to include services like ECEC, health and education in remote and regional centres.
Australia’s bid to host COP 31 offers an opportunity for demonstrating leadership on gender inclusive and gender just climate action.
WEL submission on Australia’s Draft Human Rights Report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a United Nations human rights reporting process that aims to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur. The United Nations Human Rights Council reviews the human rights records of all 193 member states every 4-5 years.
As part of each UPR cycle, Member States submit a national report and appear at the United Nations in Geneva for an interactive dialogue with other Member States. Australia’s fourth UPR will assess the implementation of Australia’s human rights obligations as provided in the UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the seven core human rights treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
In collaboration with other Federal Government departments and state and territory governments, the Attorney-General’s Department has prepared a draft of Australia’s National Report.
It details action Australian governments have taken to implement the recommendations Australia agreed to in our 2021 UPR appearance, and broader progress made with respect to human rights obligations.
In response to an invitation for comments on the draft report, WEL made a submission recommending that the final Australian report include a section on reproductive rights. Since Australia’s last periodic review all states and territories have decriminalised abortion but serious limitations in access for women in rural, regional and remote Australia persist. WEL’s policy on Health and Reproductive Rights demands that the Federal Government lead national action to enable Australian women to enjoy this fundamental right.
WEL policy calls for an Australian Human Rights Act with particular attention to strengthening protection of the rights of women and girls.
WEL Submission to Senate Education and Employment References Committee Inquiry
Following widespread evidence of regulatory and other failures in Australia’s Early Childhood Education and Care sector, the Senate Education and Employment References Committee initiated an Inquiry into Quality and Safety in the Early Childhood Education and Care Sector on 25 August. It will report on 26 March next year.
Read the WEL Submission to this Inquiry HERE.
UN acknowledgment: women’s rights are ‘unfinished business’
These were the words of the President of the UN General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, at a sobering presentation to the recent UN Assembly in New York to mark the 30th anniversary of the ground-breaking 1995 Beijing Declaration on women’s rights.
As reported recently by Women’s Agenda (24 September 2025), global leaders warned that ‘hard-won gains’ towards full gender equality were currently under threat globally. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres particularly mentioned a ‘wave of misogyny’ around the world, driven by AI that frequently reinforces discrimination.
Guterras called for the universal ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and asserted that women’s participation in decision making is not a gift but a right.
On a more positive note, 109 national governments committed to mobilising 212 national actions in support of the Beijing +30 Action Agenda, marking the strongest multilateral stand for women’s rights in the past 30 years.
Fifth World Conference of women's shelters
The Fifth World Conference of Women's Shelters was held at the Sydney Convention Centre, hosted for the first time by Australia. It attracted 1200 delegates from 60 countries.
Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Social Services, delivered the major keynote speech to a packed theatre. Her speech comprehensively covered Federal Government's initiatives to end gender-based violence and provided a historical overview of the work of Australian feminists from the founding of Elsie Women's Refuge in 1974. The speech covered recent funding allocations to address technology-assisted abuse.
WEL has a comprehensive policy platform Eliminating all Forms of Violence on ending domestic, family and sexual violence and supports the National Plan and the Recommendations of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches released in August 2024.
One of the sessions at this conference discussed the value of specialist women’s domestic violence services. It included a presentation by WEL National Coordinating Committee member Dr Jane Bullen and Dr Lesley Laing from the University of Sydney on the outcomes of their evaluation of a specialist domestic violence service, ‘They help you be the person you used to be before he changed you’.
It highlighted the importance of specialist rather than generalist services for women and children who have experienced violence, as consistently advocated by WEL. WEL is concerned that women leaving violence receive help that is properly resourced and tailored to meet their specific needs.
And yet another attack on women’s reproductive health rights!
In September, Upper House MP Sarah Game (Fair Go Australia party) introduced a new Bill aimed at restricting abortion laws in South Australia. It follows on from the attempt last year by Upper House Liberal MP Ben Hood which was defeated (see September/October WEL Informed).
The Hood Bill sought to amend abortion laws by requiring live delivery rather than termination for pregnancies after 28 weeks. Having lost that one, Sarah Game now wants to amend the law in a different way. Currently approval is needed from two medical practitioners that the procedure is appropriate given the clinical circumstances after 22 weeks and six days of pregnancy. Game wants to limit the circumstances in which abortion can occur after this period by, for example, removing the capacity to consider a person’s mental health.
The South Australian Abortion Action Coalition (SAAAC) Media Release stated that “this Private Members Bill would wind back access to abortion, harming some of the most vulnerable South Australians requiring this form of healthcare”.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RANZCOG) released a statement indicating its opposition to the Bill stating that abortion is health care and the decision to terminate a pregnancy is deeply personal and complex, requiring careful consideration of individual circumstances. RANZCOG also noted that Game’s Bill was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the reality of termination after 22 weeks and 6 days.
Behind Sarah Game sits Joanna Howe, an anti-abortion activist who was banned from Parliament House last year for allegedly harassing certain MPs and whose private agenda is to wind back abortion reform throughout Australia.
WEL continues to stand with other feminist health advocates to call on the Federal Government to work with states and territories to ensure consistent access to free public, universal reproductive health services, including making these services a condition of funding in the next Commonwealth-State Hospital funding agreement. Meanwhile, WEL supports the efforts of SAAAC, the RANZCOG and others to protect essential access to reproductive health care for South Australians.
Book launch - Securing Women’s Economic Security, Safety and Freedom: The Role of a Universal Basic Income in Australia by Zoe Staines.
This book, launched at the Whitlam Institute on 26 September 2025, explores how the introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) could impact on women’s lives, including women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and First Nations women.
The concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has attracted worldwide attention and is presented in this book as a way of hastening gender equality by providing a basic standard of living for all. Closing the global gender pay and workforce participation gaps, Dr Staines claims, will take 104 years at current rates, while current policies undervalue the unpaid care and other work women do which go beyond the formal economy.
WEL’s policy on Income Adequacy and Equality for Women proposes that the Productivity Commission should conduct a public Inquiry into the feasibility of a Guaranteed Minimum Income scheme. The launching of this new book will help inform WEL’s current review of our income support policies.
The full panel discussion which accompanied the launch can be accessed HERE.
Tribute to WEL by Meredith Edwards
Emeritus Professor Meredith Edwards, a pioneering economist dedicated to women's issues and social justice has written a moving tribute to the work of WEL over the decades and her experiences as an active WEL member.
As WEL Convenor Kay Anastassiadis has commented in response:
‘It continues to be a long struggle as new versions of old forms of abuse, oppression and exploitation emerge to undermine women's rights to equality. I think it's important to have reflections such as yours because we can lose sight of the critical and careful nature of what’s needed in working towards equality. We have to be careful not to lose a sense of what has happened over time, especially when we tend to focus on what still needs to be done. We need to properly value the work of WEL and its members.’
Meredith’s full tribute can be accessed HERE.
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