SMH – Sam Crosby
The government was wrong to drop Women's Budget Statements, which had fostered roles for women in our economic prosperity.
Following on from the first Keating budget in 1984, and in every budget since, the federal government has released a "Women's Budget Statement", to provide information about the budget's contribution to progress towards gender equality.
That 30-year-old bipartisan convention ended when the Abbott government decided not to release the statement for each of its last two budgets. I'm not sure if you can blame them though, following this year's budget it would have been nothing more than a shame-faced apology to half the population.
The first statement was developed by Dr Anne Summers who was the head of prime minister Bob Hawke's Office of the Status of Women. They're as important both socially and economically now as they were then because they help governments measure and track important issues that can help boost productivity and increase GDP. Something that everyone would benefit from. But, if you're not measuring these areas, you don't know you're falling behind until it's too late.
The Howard government understood this importance and although it changed the title and structure of these statements it kept producing them and even used them to promote what it'd been doing in the area of gender equality.
Following Prime Minister Tony Abbott's election the statements stopped. This is worrying on multiple levels but not least because it was Abbott who once said that equal representation for women was not possible because their "aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons".
It's more worrying because none of us should doubt that it was never more sorely needed. Absolutely pivotal to the success of women's participation in our democracy as productive individuals is the provision of adequate childcare and parental-leave entitlements. No one would question that the greatest impediment to women's ability to achieve equal outcomes with men financially is the burden of childbirth.
How sad it was to see Joe Hockey agree that the use of private and public schemes of parental leave was basically "fraud"and an act of "double dipping" when you consider that the public scheme was designed as a supplement to employer-provided leave when first implemented by the Gillard government. Sad, too, is the short-sightedness of the government in not anticipating that, as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned, employers will respond by getting rid of their own schemes and, in the process, denying the government the $1 billion in savings it anticipates.
At the beginning of their working lives, women outperform men, academically, with a greater proportion reaching and completing year 12 and undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. And yet, at the other end of their working lives, women are poorly placed to fund their retirements with 38 per cent having no superannuation savings and the median superannuation accumulated, for those who have some, at $17,225.
Somewhere in the middle of that long journey, we are neglecting an enormously talented group, who when questioned about feeling rushed and pressured for time report that they shoulder a greater share of the caring burden than their male partners by a significant margin. The Women's Budget Statements were introduced in the same year as the Sex Discrimination Act, and both have contributed enormously to the participation of Australian women in our nation's economic prosperity.
But it is now clear that that this greater level of participation is placing a toll on family responsibilities and the need for childcare and parental leave must be given greater emphasis so that women can realise the promise they should expect from their academic performances and then earn more and retire with more.
Nothing betrays an ignorance of the lost potential women can provide to Australian society – with greater and darker irony – than the Abbott government releasing the details of these cruel cuts to parental leave on the one day we set aside each year to honour them as mothers.
The government was wrong to drop Women's Budget Statements, which had fostered roles for women in our economic prosperity.
Following on from the first Keating budget in 1984, and in every budget since, the federal government has released a "Women's Budget Statement", to provide information about the budget's contribution to progress towards gender equality.
That 30-year-old bipartisan convention ended when the Abbott government decided not to release the statement for each of its last two budgets. I'm not sure if you can blame them though, following this year's budget it would have been nothing more than a shame-faced apology to half the population.
The first statement was developed by Dr Anne Summers who was the head of prime minister Bob Hawke's Office of the Status of Women. They're as important both socially and economically now as they were then because they help governments measure and track important issues that can help boost productivity and increase GDP. Something that everyone would benefit from. But, if you're not measuring these areas, you don't know you're falling behind until it's too late.
The Howard government understood this importance and although it changed the title and structure of these statements it kept producing them and even used them to promote what it'd been doing in the area of gender equality.
Following Prime Minister Tony Abbott's election the statements stopped. This is worrying on multiple levels but not least because it was Abbott who once said that equal representation for women was not possible because their "aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons".
It's more worrying because none of us should doubt that it was never more sorely needed. Absolutely pivotal to the success of women's participation in our democracy as productive individuals is the provision of adequate childcare and parental-leave entitlements. No one would question that the greatest impediment to women's ability to achieve equal outcomes with men financially is the burden of childbirth.
How sad it was to see Joe Hockey agree that the use of private and public schemes of parental leave was basically "fraud"and an act of "double dipping" when you consider that the public scheme was designed as a supplement to employer-provided leave when first implemented by the Gillard government. Sad, too, is the short-sightedness of the government in not anticipating that, as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned, employers will respond by getting rid of their own schemes and, in the process, denying the government the $1 billion in savings it anticipates.
At the beginning of their working lives, women outperform men, academically, with a greater proportion reaching and completing year 12 and undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. And yet, at the other end of their working lives, women are poorly placed to fund their retirements with 38 per cent having no superannuation savings and the median superannuation accumulated, for those who have some, at $17,225.
Somewhere in the middle of that long journey, we are neglecting an enormously talented group, who when questioned about feeling rushed and pressured for time report that they shoulder a greater share of the caring burden than their male partners by a significant margin. The Women's Budget Statements were introduced in the same year as the Sex Discrimination Act, and both have contributed enormously to the participation of Australian women in our nation's economic prosperity.
But it is now clear that that this greater level of participation is placing a toll on family responsibilities and the need for childcare and parental leave must be given greater emphasis so that women can realise the promise they should expect from their academic performances and then earn more and retire with more.
Nothing betrays an ignorance of the lost potential women can provide to Australian society – with greater and darker irony – than the Abbott government releasing the details of these cruel cuts to parental leave on the one day we set aside each year to honour them as mothers.
No comments:
Post a Comment