WEL-Informed May 2026

SPECIAL BUDGET EDITION

Budget pauses on women’s equality, says WEL

The Albanese Government’s 2026/27 Federal Budget arrives at a moment when Australian women are carrying the weight of multiple crises: soaring housing costs, inflexible work, rising violence, pressure on care systems and rising inequality.

The Albanese Government’s 2026/07 Budget contains important taxation reforms for which WEL and our allies have advocated. We recognise the genuine progress made for women over the Government’s first term. But this Budget has the ‘feel’ of  “running on the spot” — pausing the momentum needed to make gender equality a central economic objective rather than a side consideration.

Women are not peripheral to Australia’s economy. Women’s unpaid and paid labour underpins it.

Tax reform and income security

There are meaningful gains. WEL welcomes the Government’s decision to wind back investor tax concessions that overwhelmingly benefit holders of passive wealth rather than working women. The shift away from taxing labour and towards taxing wealth is an important first step in addressing structural inequality in Australia’s economy.

Reforms to the Child Support Scheme are a long overdue   measure to prevent financial abuse by absent parents. The $182.6 million package will ensure women and children are no longer left economically vulnerable because a former partner withholds child support payments.

For single mothers, many already living close to the poverty line, the reforms are expected to improve access to family and parenting payments and reduce child poverty.

WEL also supports the expansion of Paid Parental Leave (with super) to six months from July 2026. Recognising care as work is essential to women’s workforce participation and long-term economic security.

We are very disappointed that the Government has no forward plan to achieve ‘international best practice’. Unlike comparable OECD countries, Australia still has no pathway towards 12 months paid parental leave — a reform that is critical for children’s wellbeing, shared care and women’s equality at work.

The Budget’s continued investment in Early Childhood Education and Care, including the $4.7 billion “3 Day Guarantee”, is another acknowledgement that childcare is economic infrastructure, not a luxury. But WEL argues that without a clear roadmap towards universal early childhood education and care, structural barriers to women’s workforce participation remain intact.

Recognising care as work is critical to women’s workforce participation and long-term economic security.

Despite these positive measures WEL agrees with ACOSS that the Budget still fails many women on the lowest incomes. While tax offsets will assist working Australians, there is no relief for women whose incomes are so low they pay little or no tax, including JobSeeker recipients, pensioners and single mothers without paid work.

Housing and homelessness

Housing remains one of the sharpest examples of gender inequality in Australia, particularly for older women, single mothers and young women experiencing homelessness.

WEL has welcomed the Government’s housing measures, including $59.4 million in community housing support for young people at risk of homelessness. Young women remain disproportionately represented in homelessness services.

But we warn that the broader housing crisis cannot be solved without a major expansion of public and community housing. Women comprise 63 per cent of social housing main tenants, reflecting the reality that women are more likely to rely on social   housing due to lower lifetime earnings, caring responsibilities and insecure work.

WEL argues Australia is still failing to meet the scale of the crisis. Current government plans fall far short of the widely supported goal of increasing social housing from roughly 4 per cent to 10 per cent of total housing stock by 2050.

Without a serious increase in public housing, many women will remain at risk of homelessness in an increasingly unaffordable private rental market.

Working women will benefit from the Budget’s shift from taxing workers to taxing passive wealth.

Violence against women: incremental, not transformative

The Budget’s response to gender-based violence has disappointed feminist advocacy groups across the board. While the Women’s Budget Statement recognises the enduring impacts of family, domestic and sexual violence, the Budget largely repackages existing commitments, rather than introducing any transformative new measures.

The extension of the Leaving Violence Program and additional funding for frontline domestic violence workers are welcome. But WEL warns short-term funding cycles create instability for specialist services and risk losing experienced staff.

We are particularly concerned that efforts to address perpetrator behaviour remain modest despite the escalating national crisis. Funding to address perpetrator behaviour has not increased beyond the existing $9.6 million allocation. This is a ‘mere gesture” given the scale of violence against women.

National leadership and financial investment must drive continuing action.

First Nations women and community-led solutions

WEL welcomes the Government’s support for First Nations-led initiatives under the ten-year plan Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices.

Solutions for First Nations women and communities must be led by First Nations women themselves. Funding for Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and the establishment of a new National Peak Body for First Nations family safety are positive steps, although much greater investment will be required in future budgets.

The continuation of Birthing on Country services is a life-saving investment in culturally safe maternal care, although there is no provision in the budget for the extension of the existing ten sites.

We are concerned that the Budget’s failure to increase the Remote Area Allowance will continue to disproportionately affect Aboriginal women and children facing rapidly rising food and transport costs.

Women’s health and reproductive rights

The Government deserves recognition for major reproductive health reforms first announced in 2025 and expanded in this Budget. These include funding for modern contraceptives under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, bulk billing incentives for long-acting reversible contraceptives, and expanded Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Clinics which will also support menopause and perimenopause treatments and assessments

These reforms represent a significant shift, after decades of women’s reproductive health being underfunded and overlooked.

We are concerned that the Government risks narrowing its ambition on women’s health, after replacing the broadly representative Australian Women’s Health Council with a smaller expert panel focused initially on cardiovascular health. Systemic medical misogyny, gender bias in the Medical Benefits Schedule and thus Medicare funding and the high out-of-pocket costs women face for reproductive and chronic healthcare conditions remain unresolved.

The absence of any significant action on abortion access for rural and regional women is another major concern. Medical and surgical abortion remains expensive and inconsistently available across Australia, particularly outside metropolitan centres.

Comparable countries including Canada, New Zealand and England provide abortion care free of charge.

Human rights and disability concerns

WEL is alarmed by the cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Women will once again absorb a greater burden of unpaid care as children are shifted out of the scheme.

Women with disability already face higher rates of violence and are less likely to access support services.  The proposed changes suggest another failure to apply a gender lens to policy-making.

WEL is also very concerned about substantial cuts to Human Rights Commission funding and the absence of progress towards a Federal Human Rights Act.

Reproductive rights remain vulnerable to shifting state laws and growing far-right political influence. WEL now believes only national human rights protections can guarantee women’s reproductive freedom across Australia.

This Budget fails to match the scale of inequality women continue to face.

The bigger picture

The 2026/07 Federal Budget makes an historic move to repair intergenerational inequality but pauses on the road to making gender equality integral to economic policy.

WEL believes that gender equality should be central to Australia’s plans for productivity, economic resilience and social cohesion — not siloed within isolated portfolio measures.

As our WEL Convenor Kay Anastassiadis argues, Australia cannot solve its economic challenges without fully utilising the capacity, labour and leadership of women.

“All Australians are standing in the eye of the current storm together,” she says, “but many women are feeling the shock waves far more deeply.”

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