WEL-Informed June 2026
DONATE TO HELP DEFEND AND EXTEND OUR GAINS
We all know that the rights and protections we fought hard to achieve can be weakened, delayed or undone.
We are seeing this right now through attempts in NSW, South Australia and Queensland to wind back abortion and reproductive rights protections.
WEL’s passionate and volunteer activists are working to combat these attacks- talking with MPs, building alliances with experts and health practitioners taking the fight to Parliaments.
Your tax-deductible donation to WEL can equip us to take on politicians and leaders tempted to press fiscal pause or reverse on the road to Gender Equality.
Click below to make your donation
Disturbing rise in attacks on Women’s Reproductive Rights
As we were dissecting the Federal Budget’s impact on women, opponents of women’s reproductive rights were marshalling bills to limit access to abortion in Queensland, South Australia and NSW.
The Queensland Bill sought to remove Registered Midwives’ and Nurse Practitioners’ scope of practice to prescribe and supply MS2 Step and would have further restricted abortion access in rural and regional Queensland. On June 3rd the Bill was defeated. Queensland feminists, unions and our allies from Fair Agenda had organised opposition rallies and put intense pressure on MPs.
In New South Wales, Libertarian MP John Ruddick has introduced a bill that would again criminalise abortion care by banning abortions performed for the purpose of sex selection. The Bill would introduce criminal penalties of up to five years imprisonment for healthcare providers.
The 2019 NSW Abortion Law Reform Act already opposes sex selection-based abortion.
The Ruddick Bill was briefly debated on June 3, 2026. Upper House speakers supporting the Bill ignored the 2020 NSW Health study. This research found negligible evidence of sex-based abortion in NSW. Rather, speakers supporting the Bill selectively cited research from Edith Cowan University, based on outdated data. (Authors of the Edith Cowan study themselves warn against misinterpreting their findings and recommend education and other non-punitive measures).
Criminal penalties for healthcare providers would once again restrict NSW abortion care by discouraging providers from offering services and increasing stigma, especially for women seeking abortions from migrant communities.
In South Australia, a Bill to criminalise abortion after 25 weeks of pregnancy is at real risk of passing the State’s Upper House, if the recently elected One Nation MPs support it.
WEL is working with our allies to oppose this rash of bills and to monitor further attempts to undermine the recently achieved and historic decriminalisation of abortion in Australia.
Minister Plibersek launches Consultation Paper for Second Action Plan after disappointment with 2026/07 Budget for DV Services
WEL’s 2026/27 Budget analysis concludes that the Government’s funding for Women’s Domestic Violence Services has markedly slowed.
The Budget provided some additional funding to frontline domestic and family violence for workers in the sector. We were disappointed that there was no additional funding for unmet needs experienced by front-line services and especially for the specialist workforce required to respond to escalating demand.
Our disappointment was shared by other feminist advocacy organisations. Fair Agenda notes (on Facebook), ‘at a time where gender-based violence is a national crisis – tonight’s budget from the Albanese Government delivered no meaningful increase to capacity for the frontline services supporting women and children escaping and recovering from domestic and sexual violence’.
In her introduction to the recently released Consultation Paper – Evidence to Action: informing direction for the Second Action Plan, Tanya Plibersek lists more than 583 initiatives across the country under the First Action Plan. She adds that the Government has supported “more than 1400 organisations and helped over 449,000 people across Australia who are experiencing family, domestic or sexual violence”.
The sheer volume of reports, plans and initiatives is a challenge to those working in policy areas and attempting to monitor progress in the delivery of the Plan’s ambitious targets.
ANROWS (Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety) produced Evidence to Action. ANROWS research underpins the implementation of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032.
But media commentary and those working at the frontline have an abundance of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the violence is worsening and perpetrators are getting younger.
The National Plan stresses that ending violence against women and children requires coordinated, evidence-informed action across governments, sectors and communities. We all have a role to play. Government action alone cannot fix gender-based violence.
Evidence to Action provides an opportunity to focus the Second National Plan on initiatives that can stem the tide by identifying innovative programs and proven models of intervention.
In the face of 26 deaths by femicide so far in 2026 and 51 in 2025, there has been some pressure on the Government and the Prime Minister to call a Royal Commission.
WEL does not support these calls.
Funds need to be directed, not to more reports or inquiries, but into effective services which deliver measurable outcomes.
WEL’s policy on eliminating all forms of violence against women and children is clear: increased ongoing funding is critical to sustainability, reliability and quality of DV and women’s refuge services. We ask for transparency in program funding allocations and expenditure. We strongly support national systems for data collection, monitoring and assessment of progress. Accountability for the effectiveness of expenditure needs to underpin reporting on achievement of the National Plan’s vision to end violence in one generation!
WEL members can record their views in the Consultation portal of the Department of Social Services till 31st July.
Capital Gains Tax Reforms: Fairer for Women Too
In the maelstrom of ill-informed, self-serving and partisan commentary on the government’s tax reforms, particularly the changes to the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) discount, critics have conveniently ignored the report of the Select Committee on the Operation of the CGT discount. Its findings merit some examination. Among those were two which WEL considers noteworthy.
First, the design of the CGT discount has the potential to distort the allocation of investment across the economy, with evidence that existing housing stock makes up a substantial share of capital gains that benefit from the CGT discount.
Secondly, that the benefits of the capital gains discount are unequally distributed, with implications for income and wealth inequality and intergenerational inequality.
The Working with Women Alliance submission to the Select Committee Capital Gains Tax Reform examines the Tax Expenditure and Insights Statement of 2024. It is clear that the beneficiaries of the CGT discount are people above the median income. From the table on the distributional impact of large expenditures and deductions by gender, the greater proportion of those high-income beneficiaries are men – 58%, with women – 42%.
The hue and cry from vested interests and the absence of an intelligent, thoughtful response from the Opposition, is disappointing but sadly predictable. WEL considers these reforms critical to addressing inequitable taxation of income and wealth, intergenerational inequality and gender inequality.
Housing women and families makes economic sense: New YWCA report
Investing in social and affordable housing for women delivers not only social returns, but significant economic returns as well. Research released by the YWCA Australia and the Per Capita Centre for Equitable Housing finds that every dollar invested in gender responsive housing delivers at least $2.02 in measurable benefits to government, with returns rising to as much as $4.66 in cases for households with complex needs or multiple children.
Housing That Pays Back is based on the YWCA’s 528 housing tenancies, supporting 731 residents. The fiscal consequences of housing stability are traceable to specific reductions in health system expenditure, justice system costs, homelessness service use and other costs. The returns are higher than those for roads, rail and other major infrastructure.
Women face disadvantages in the housing market due to lower lifetime earnings, unpaid care responsibilities and the impact of domestic violence. Women are more likely to be single parents. The number of women experiencing homelessness continues to rise at a faster rate than for men, increasing by 10.1% in the last Census, compared to 1.6% for men. At this time when housing is out of reach for so many women, the research shows that housing women and families can provide stability, and save taxpayer money at the same time.
WEL Honours our Founders
Vale Caroline Graham
First convenor of WEL NSW
Wendy McCarthy AC remembers and salutes one of our founders
Despite WEL’s reputation for truth telling and keeper of the stories of its beginnings, many people would not recognise the name Caroline Graham the first WEL convenor in New South Wales. She accepted that responsibility in May 1972 at a meeting held to listen to the idea of WEL presented to a gathering of 12 women by Beatrice Faust.
Beatrice Faust flew to Sydney on a mission to convert local women to the idea of a women’s political pressure group. The people invited were contacted through the Abortion Law Reform Association and met at the home of Julia Freebury in Bellevue Hill.
Beatrice spoke persuasively of the article written by Gloria Steinem in New York magazine for the first edition of Ms magazine entitled ‘How women see candidates for the White House.’ It was based on a nationwide survey of candidates’ attitudes towards issues women considered important and American woman thought the information influenced the vote.
Ten women from Melbourne had looked at this questionnaire and developed it for Australia. Their question to us was would we support it? We were a small group - no more than twelve people. It needed national coverage. We would need a control group, a lot of people willing to conduct interviews and a good media campaign. At the end of the session Beatrice looked around the room to ask who was enthusiastic and be prepared to coordinate it.
Nobody volunteered, some were mildly interested but thought the tactics would lead to superficial reforms when we needed radical change. Others were wedded to their interest groups. Almost by default, as we seemed the people in the room with the least to do, it was agreed that Caroline Graham would be the convener and June Surtees and I would act as deputies.
We three instinctively responded to the proposition that this offered an already rehearsed way to find some answers. As the election was 18 months away, we did not meet until early June when we called a public meeting to test interest in the idea.
It was the idea that was so compelling.
It already had an embryo name: ‘Women's Electoral Lobby’ or WEL.
At our first public meeting over 40 women turned up. We were on a roll and within two months we had to move to a larger meeting space.
Caroline convened us with equanimity and style. She was writing a weekly column in The Australian and had excellent media contacts. She was generous with her home where many of the early meetings were held and famously allowed the ABC program Monday Conference to film a controversial program there.
Caroline was born on 2 August 1938 and died on 24 April 2027, aged 87, accessing voluntary assisted dying (VAD) after being diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer with a prognosis of only a few months to live. She was a long time supporter of VAD and was grateful to be able to die at home surrounded by her children on her own terms.
Caroline was a journalist and an academic. She had a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a Master of Arts (Comm.) from the NSW Institute of Technology (1983). Caroline’s main interest in life from the age of around 30 was political activism, starting with her objection to the Vietnam War.
Caroline wrote articles in the Nation Review and the Australian among other publications. She was a tutor at the Government Department at the University of Sydney, then became a lecturer at the Institute of Technology (now the University of Technology) teaching journalism and international politics with a particular interest in the Middle East.
Caroline is survived by 4 children, Georgia, Fiona, Magennis and Luther; 6 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter.
Caroline was known as Kang to old friends, mum to her children and Big Bad Gran to her grandchildren and great granddaughter.
Caroline married twice – firstly to Gary Seaton in 1959 aged 20, a marriage that lasted for only a few years. There were 2 children of this marriage, Georgia and Fiona. Caroline and Gary lived firstly in Randwick and then in Double Bay.
Caroline’s second marriage to Philip Weate was in 1967 when she was 28. There were 2 children to this marriage, Magennis and Luther. Caroline and Philip lived with the 4 children in Caroline’s home in Double Bay and separated in 1975. The whole family including Philip moved to Petersham, Caroline having purchased 2 neighbouring terrace houses. Philip moved out within a few months to Birchgrove.
During their marriage, Caroline and Philip purchased a bush block on the Cataract River in Douglas Park, down past Campbelltown, as a weekender.
Ultimately Caroline moved there to live permanently in 1990 and lived there until 2014 at age 75 when she moved to Willandra Retirement Village in Cromer (in the hinterland of Manly on the Northern Beaches in Sydney). She lived on her own and had some medical issues and felt it was time to downsize and live near family members and closer to medical facilities.
She was a natural and thoughtful leader across many issues.
She belongs to our WEL memories.
I salute her purposeful life.
Wendy McCarthy AC
5 June 2026
WEL's work matters more than ever.
For over 50 years, the Women's Electoral Lobby has helped turn women's voices into lasting change, from workplace protections and paid parental leave to domestic violence leave, reproductive rights and the costs of unpaid care.
That work goes on.
Through our independent Federal Budget analysis, we have helped expose where women are being left behind and where governments must do more. Click through to analysis.
This End of Financial Year, your tax-deductible donation will help WEL:
- Protect hard-won progress for women
- Hold governments to account
- Campaign for practical reforms
- Educate and inform the community
- Strengthen independent feminist advocacy.
Your support helps ensure women's voices continue to shape Australia's future for our equality.
Click below to make your donation
WEL provides tax deductibility through our sister organisation, the National Foundation for Australian Women’s portal HERE.
Select ‘Women’s Electoral Lobby’ from the ‘organisation or fund’ drop down list under ‘Donation details’.
WEL acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
Women's Electoral Lobby
https://www.wel.org.au/