Media release: Tuesday 3 May, 2016

Federal Budget 2016

Women and Children’s Safety Program- where is it?

Government fails to fund essential services for women experiencing domestic and family violence

Women’s Electoral Lobby, Australia (WEL) has slammed the budget for not funding a women and children’s safety program including desperately needed frontline crisis services for domestic and family violence. WEL Australia Deputy Chair Helen L’Orange said, ‘A good start would have been $1billion over 5 years from the Commonwealth for a long term and securely funded Commonwealth/State national program for 24-hour accessible women’s refuges, frontline outreach services and transitional accommodation.’

A lack of adequate funding in the latest Budget for services and programs will see good intentions to address crisis levels of domestic and family violence in Australia flounder, according to the Women’s Electoral Lobby, Australia (WELA).

The Intergenerational Report released today shows there is still much work to be done to improve women’s participation rates in the workforce.

Women’s Electoral Lobby Australia Chair Melanie Fernandez said she was concerned the Government was doing too little to prioritise and address the issue.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby Australia (WEL) is deeply concerned and disappointed by Premier Mike Baird’s calls for the Crimes Amendment (Zoe’s Law) Bill No. 2 2013 to be debated in the NSW Upper House.

‘This Bill is an unnecessary and harmful change to the NSW Crimes Act and should not be passed,” said WEL Australia Chair Melanie Fernandez.

Women, especially mid aged and older women, are the largely hidden victims of Australia’s affordable housing crisis according to Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL).

WEL presented evidence before the NSW upper house Affordable Housing Inquiry on Monday 12 May that the crisis in housing affordability has specific impacts on women.

The 2014-15 Federal Budget will increase the impact on women of income inequality, difficulty accessing affordable quality child care, scarcity of affordable housing, and rising costs of healthcare, according to the Women’s Electoral Lobby.

If Prime Minister elect Tony Abbott is as disappointed as he says about the lack of women appointed to his new Cabinet, he should outline immediately how he plans to address the issue according to the Women’s’ Electoral Lobby.

Days out from the 2013 Federal Election the Greens have come out on top as the party with the best policies for women this election according to the Women’s Electoral Lobby.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby asked the three major parties to respond to its five asks for the election and rated each of them between 0 and 5 based on their responses.

Parental leave payments, whether funded through employers or the government, must be administered by employers or women risk being detached entirely from their workplace and losing their positions according to the Women’s Electoral Lobby.

NSW Women’s groups are deeply concerned about the implication for women’s rights of a bill, dubbed “Zoe’s Law”, which will be brought before parliament this week.

The Bill proposes an amendment to the NSW Crimes Act which would create an additional criminal offence for any person who causes the destruction or harm of a foetus of a pregnant woman