1.         Anti-Discrimination & Family Law

Anti-Discrimination Law

In 2009 Australia celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act. Sex discrimination is against Australian law and living and working in an environment free of sex discrimination and sexual harassment is a protected right for all women and men.

The major objectives of the Sex Discrimination Act are to:

• promote equality between men and women

• eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status or pregnancy or potential pregnancy

• eliminate sexual harassment.

In 2008 the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs held a major inquiry on the Sex Discrimination Act. Their Report recommends a more comprehensive, robust regime, better able to attack systemic discrimination and promote substantive equality, including:.

1. Amendments to ensure the Sex Discrimination Act is fully interpreted in accordance with a range relevant international conventions such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Economic, Cultural and Social (ICESCR) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.

2. The Sex Discrimination Act to include a general equality before the law provision, modeled on section 10 of the Racial Discrimination Act. The Act also needs to include a general prohibition against sex discrimination and sexual harassment in any area of public life.

3. In addition to strengthening the Act’s prohibition against discrimination on the grounds of family responsibilities, a positive duty on employers, partnerships and principals is needed to accommodate the needs of workers in relation to pregnancy, family and carer responsibilities.

Key Points for Action: Improving Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act

The following points need to be raised with Members of Parliament, Senators and candidates for the federal election:

• Call for the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs to strength the Sex Discrimination Act to be implemented (Full report titled Effectiveness of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 in Eliminating Discrimination and Promoting Gender Equality).

• Enact a national Equality Act that requires the elimination of all forms of discrimination and the realisation of substantive equality.

 

Family Law: Reforms needed to keep women and children safe

The Family Law Act was passed in 1975. In 2006 amendments were made to ostensibly help separated parents make arrangements for the care of their children more co-operatively than in the past.

However three recently released reports into the 2006 reforms reveal the family law system is failing to keep women and children safe. In particular, the reports found that:1

• Shared parental decision-making and shared care arrangements are being made in cases where there is a history of family violence and/or dysfunctional behaviours.

• Shared care arrangements compromise the well-being of children when safety concerns about the children exist.

• 20% of parents held safety concerns associated with ongoing contact with their child’s other parent and over 90% of these parents had been either physically hurt or emotionally abused by the other parent.

• Parents whose capacity to mediate is compromised by past or present violence are still entering the system at Family Relationship Centres (introduced in 2006).

• While the development and maintenance of a close relationship requires spending time together, existing research suggests that ‘more time’ does not necessarily equate with better outcomes for children.

 

Key Points for Action Reforming Family Law

Violence against women and their children was estimated to cost the Australian economy $13.6 billion in 2009.1 Improving the Family Law Act will go some way to protecting women and children from ongoing abuse.

1. Implement key recommendations from the reports on the current Family Law Act

• Broaden the definition of family violence in the Family Law Act to come into line with current understandings of what constitutes family violence and state legislation on family violence.

• Establish an overarching risk assessment framework to cover all stages of post separation services and family law systems.

• Remove the false allegations costs provision in the Act.

• Abolish the connection in the Act between shared parental responsibility (joint decision making) and shared care arrangements.

• Remove references to specific parenting arrangements in the Act, as this should be determined by what is in the best interest of the child.

• Take into account experience and knowledge of family violence when appointing people to significant positions in the family law system, and provide regular training on family violence.

• Develop clear guidelines for expert opinions in parenting cases.

2. Increase Family Law Funding

• Increase funding to key services in the family law system, such as contact centres, legal aid, community legal centres, and family law consultants.

1. Australian Institute of Family Studies, Evaluation of the 2006 Family Law Reforms (2009); Professor Richard Chisholm, Family Courts Violence Review (2009); and Family Law Council Improving Responses to Family Violence in the Family Law System (2009).

2. National Council to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children, Economic costs of violence against women and their children (2009).

Women’s advocates have welcomed the Senate Committee’s Report on the Sex Discrimination Act. Implementing its recommendations would reach out and deal with systemic discrimination issues and polices, practices or patterns of behaviour which are not addressed by the current Act.  

2.    Body Image

Body image describes how an individual conceptualises their physical appearance. Unhealthy body image can affect anyone and can be taken to involve dissatisfaction with one’s physical appearance leading to unhealthy responses, such as poor eating behaviours, changing levels of physical activity, substance abuse or reduced social interactions.

One size does not fit all, never has and never will.

Body dissatisfaction is approaching epidemic proportions among young Australians, with seven out of ten high school girls consistently choosing an ideal figure that is thinner than their own, and only 16 per cent of young women reportedly happy with their body weight. Body image satisfaction is directly linked to self-esteem for adolescents. Mission Australia’s National Survey of Young Australians has consistently identified body image as one of the leading issues of concern to young Australians of both genders.

Images of attractive and thin women and men prevail in popular print and electronic media and advertising. These idealised images do not truly reflect the bodies of most people in the community. They can contribute to unrealistic perceptions which may lead to body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. 

 

Eating Disorders and Dieting

Dissatisfaction with their bodies causes many women and girls, men and boys, to strive for the promoted thin ideal, often through unsuccessful or even harmful dieting.¹ Studies have found that girls and boys reportedly take up smoking to stimulate weight lose.

Serious eating disorders such as can result from unhealthy body image, and their prevalence among children and adolescents is rising: approximately one in 100 adolescent girls develop anorexia nervosa, making it the third most common chronic illness in girls, after obesity and asthma. Associated health consequences of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa include osteoporosis, fertility problems, kidney dysfunction, reduced metabolic rate, cardiac irregularities, muscle wasting, oedema, anaemia, stunting of growth and reduced mental functioning. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness, with a death rate higher than that of major depression.

 

National Industry Standards

The development of national industry standards on positive body image may be an effective step along the way to responsible body image portrayal in the media. There is still no national system of enforced regulation relating to the portrayal of body image in print and electronic media, despite growing community concern around issues such the presentation of extremely underweight fashion models. 

However, some positive steps have been taken in this area. In 2008 the Federal Government established the National Advisory Group on Body Image which in late 2009 produced the Proposed National Strategy on Body Image report, recommending a raft of initiatives including:

• Incorporate body image issues within teaching and learning

• Provide appropriate information to parents and carers to assist them to foster positive body image messages in the home

• Note the impact of maternity on body image and explore the adequacy of current efforts in this area

• Work with the Australian Sports Commission and peak sporting bodies to respond to body image issues raised in the report on the participation of women in sport

• Work with relevant sports and artistic agencies and bodies to support strategies to encourage positive body image

• Work with community groups to provide them with appropriate body image information and messages

The report also proposed a Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image recommending:

• Clearer notification of altered or enhanced images, including digital alterations

• Better representation of diverse body shapes and sizes

• Appropriate industry age limits

• Realistic and natural images of people

• Healthy weight models

• Fashion retailers supporting positive body image

• Diversity

The National Advisory Group on Body Image recommended the Australian Government commit to implementing, promoting and supporting the proposed voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image.

 

Key points for action: Healthy Body Image

The following points need to be raised with Members of Parliament, Senators and candidates for the federal election:

1. Ensure appropriate funding is provided to support the initiatives of the Proposed National Strategy on Body Image report

2. Provide the community with regular reports on implementation of the voluntary code of conduct

3. Establish a process to consider greater Government regulation should industry fail to abide by the standards set out in the Proposed National Strategy on Body Image

1 2004 Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into issues relating to the development of body image – VicHealth.

3.      Women and the green economy

In recent years there has been growing concern about climate change and environmental sustainability. In this time various groups within the international community have been promoting ‘green jobs’ and a ‘green economy’.

Women have been identified both as key players in the move towards a sustainable future and also as a group likely to be severely affected by climate change (by UNIFEM, the Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO) and the International Labour Organisation).

This ‘green’ movement is relatively new, and as such definitions are constantly evolving and changing. Various groups use divergent definitions for the terms ‘green jobs’ or ‘green economy’, and definitions that are available are open for interpretation. Currently when discussing ‘green jobs’, parties have a somewhat different understanding of exactly what is being discussed. This results in potential miscommunication, misunderstanding and misleading information or ‘greenwashing’. This highlights the need for a robust definition of ‘green’ terms, ideally internationally but at least within Australia. A strong definition will allow demonstrable probity and transparency within organisations and accountability for the delivery of election promises.

The main driver of the Government’s plan to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions is the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) currently being debated in the Commonwealth Parliament. The Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme has been introduced to increase Australia’s renewable energy. By 2020, 20% of Australia’s electricity supply will come from renewable sources (e.g. solar, wind and geothermal energy). The Clean Energy Initiative (CEI) complements the CPRS and the RET scheme. The initiative supports the research, development and demonstration of low emission energy technology. It has three components, the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Flagships Program, the Solar Flagships Program and Renewable Australia.

The Clean Sustainable Skills Package (CSSP) pledges a $94.6 million investment in 50 000 green jobs and training opportunities. However the jobs being promoted are in traditionally male dominated fields.

 

Table 1. Women as percentage of those employed in potential ‘green jobs’ in November 2009.¹

 

Industries	% Women Employed
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing	42.2
Mining	13.0
Manufacturing	27.1
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services	22.0
Construction	12.5
Transport, Postal and Warehousing	23.6

 

There have been programs in Australia in recent years aimed at getting more women into traditionally male dominated trades. These include Tap Girls and Girls with Spark, both of which were initiatives by the Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE and local employers.

Current detailed Australian workforce, training and education data, which provides a breakdown by gender, is not readily accessible. Obtaining data is difficult and means that full analysis of data and statistics – gathered by government and in theory publicly available – is not possible.

Next Steps

‘Women and green economy’ needs more attention, more debate, and more considered policy options. WomenSpeak has commissioned a preliminary scoping study, Gender in Australia’s Green Economy, which sets out recommendations on a green economy that also addresses the needs of Australian women.

Recommendations from the study include:

1. Definitions: A national definition and taxonomy of ‘green jobs’ for wide agreement needs to be developed.

2. Government to demonstrate accountability and report on the Government’s 50 000 Clean Skills Sustainability Package jobs.

4. Further analysis to determine exactly which jobs the 30 000 ‘green’ apprenticeships will fill, how ‘green’ these jobs are and also how accessible the jobs are to women.

5. Support for all Australian workplaces to provide basic ‘green’ skills training such as energy/waste/water auditing and reduction skills.

6. Calls for the Clean Skills Sustainability Package to become more gender sensitive. Addressing some of the work force attachment issues currently affecting women can do this. These include issues of childcare, flexible working arrangements, and transport.

10. Urge the government to undertake further research to determine the success rate of programs that support young women in apprenticeships, such as the Tropical North Queensland TAFE schemes Tap Girls and Girls with Spark. Investigate the strengths and shortcomings of these programs, with the aim to implement similar programs in other regions of Australia.

11. Calls for Government to develop and implement programs that promote women into non-traditional trades in Australia. This needs to focus both on women who may participate and employers who will gain a larger employee pool. This will need to focus largely on addressing preconceived ideas about the capabilities and attributes of women and the rigours and requirements of such trades. A monitoring system is a key component of such a program.

For a copy of Gender in Australia’s Green Economy go to www.ywca.org.au/policy-and-campaigns/womenspeak

1. http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/218562E41D8F6E23CA2576A400112CD7/$File/61050_Jan%202010.pdf.

 

4.         Women and Homelessness

Homelessness has been the subject of considerable community, political and academic attention and debate recently. In large measure, this focus has been driven by the ongoing housing affordability crisis in Australia over the last decade. Addressing homelessness, and especially rough sleeping, is now a national policy priority.

Consequently, there has been recent innovation in both housing and homelessness policy, including new money for homelessness and affordable housing initiatives, such as the National Partnership Agreements on Social Housing, Remote Indigenous Housing and Homelessness that support the NAHA – National Affordable Housing Agreement (which replaced SAAP – the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program). Policy has also been guided by the Government’s White Paper on Homelessness, The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness. There has been investment in building and upgrading social housing properties through the National Building Economic Stimulus Plan, as well as the introduction of subsidies to make private rental housing more affordable through the NRAS – National Rental Affordability Scheme.

 

These are welcome actions to address Australia’s homelessness. However, more must to be done to ensure that the unique needs of homeless women are fully met as part of these actions. On any given night approximately 46,000 Australian women and girls are homeless. Many of these women have children in their care. A significant proportion of them are school aged children themselves. This is an unacceptable number of women and girls living without access to safe and appropriate shelter.

 

Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Counting the Homeless program shows females now comprise 44% of the homeless population, up from 42% in 2001. Other statistics on homelessness show that:

• Around 5,800 girl children aged 0–12 and 11,800 young women aged 12–18 are homeless on any given night.

• Domestic and family violence is the most frequently cited cause of homelessness generally (in 22% of all support periods), and especially for women (50% for women with children, 37% for single women).

• The majority of women who are homeless on any given night have been accommodated by SAAP services. Yet one in two women presenting to SAAP services on any given night are turned away because of lack of capacity in the system to meet their immediate needs. The majority of these women are turned away because of a lack of available accommodation.

• Women with children are the most likely to have unmet needs within current accommodation programs.

• Indigenous women and children are highly overrepresented among women presenting to crisis services because of domestic and family violence.

Women and girls are now a significant group among Australia’s homeless faces. Without significant attention directed at addressing the causes and consequences of homelessness for women, within 15 to 20 years women may become the majority of our homeless population.

What do we need right now?

We must ensure that as a priority all girls and women who are homeless or at risk of homeless have immediate access to safe, secure and affordable accommodation for the duration of their need – together with a continuum of care and support services to assist them rebuild their lives post crisis.

Given the absolute dominance of domestic and family violence as the primary cause of homelessness for Australian women, an integrated strategy must be developed that brings together all services – specialist and mainstream – as well as policy and practice. Integrating policies and actions directed at reducing domestic and family violence with homelessness in general is crucial. Anything short of this level of integration lends itself to criticism of such actions as merely paying lip service to the problems.

Actions to address homelessness generally, and homelessness for women specifically, must also ensure that the needs of particular groups are also met. These include Indigenous women, women with disabilities, single older women, older women suffering domestic and family violence and/or elder abuse, women without children in their care, women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (including those on temporary resident visas) and children affected by domestic and family violence. The reality remains that these groups are too often the victims of violence and of homelessness whose voices are ignored.

 

Key Points of Action: Addressing Homelessness for Women and Girls

1. Poverty and Income Support

As a priority, the Australian Government must ensure that women who are rebuilding their life post-crisis have the necessary income to support themselves and their families, as well as access to affordable and appropriate accommodation. For many women this will mean they need to be provided with an ongoing crisis payment and/or private rental subsidy along the lines of the RentStart scheme offered by the NSW Government.

2. Children

Funding is needed for services to employ specialist children’s support workers who can work with children and families to provide the specific support services they need.

3. Flexibility of Support

Support and accommodation options provided for homeless women must be safe, secure, affordable, appropriate and flexible. The female homeless population includes a significant majority of people with complex and particular needs. These needs determine the accommodation and support clients require.

4. Adequate Resourcing for Rural and Regional Services

More funding must be provided for crisis services and safe and secure crisis, transitional and long term housing options in regional and rural Australia. This is especially important for Indigenous girls and women in such areas, where there is an acute shortage of appropriate services.

5. Data and Reporting

Homeless data collection must be improved, and be regularly presented in a disaggregated manner to show service usage, unmet need and outcomes by basic demographics for vulnerable groups, including women and girls. Such data disaggregation must also apply to reporting on outcomes of the NAHA and relevant National Partnerships, NRAS and Social Housing Initiative.

This fact sheet is a summary of the issues which are key to understanding and moving forward with addressing homelessness for women and girls in Australia. The information contained in this information sheet is drawn from WomenSpeak’s short discussion paper on the implications of current policy directions and relevant initiatives for homeless Australian women and girls. For a copy of the discussion paper go to www.ywca.org.au/policy-and-campaigns/womenspeak

 

5.         Calling for a Human Rights Act

 

On 10 December 2008 the National Human Rights Consultation was launched, Australia’s largest public inquiry with over 40,000 people taking part. The Consultation’s task was to ask whether Australia should introduce a Human Rights Act and investigate what else could be done to strengthen human rights protection in Australia.

WomenSpeak, a network of women’s advocates, prepared a submission with a women’s rights perspective to the Consultation. The submission focused on four key areas: addressing already-identified human rights problems; arguing for a Human Rights Act for Australia; strengthening the Sex Discrimination Act; and integrating human rights principles into policy development and implementation by rejuvenating women’s policy machinery.

On 30 September 2009, the consultation committee handed its report to the Government, recommending the introduction of a Human Rights Act for Australia. The report also recommended strengthening the Australian Human Rights Commission, enhancing Australia’s human rights culture and education, improving parliamentary scrutiny of human rights, and addressing acute disadvantage experienced by groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

The report was consistent with many of the points made by the WomenSpeak submission. But it was weak in some areas. First, it failed to recommend the same level of protection for economic, social and cultural rights as for civil and political rights. These vital rights, such as health, education and housing, would not be judicially enforceable under the proposed model. Second, the distinctive rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, such as self-determination, were also neglected in the report, despite the Government’s formal support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Finally, the report did not recommend that equality and non-discrimination be explicitly listed in the Human Rights Act as overarching rights to be protected.

The Consultation Committee’s report was consistent with many of the points made by the WomenSpeak submission. But it was weak in some areas: economic, social and cultural rights; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights; and the right to equality and non-discrimination.

As Australians approach the 2010 federal election, the Government still has not issued a formal response to the Consultation report. Now is the time to let MPs, Senators and candidates on all sides of politics know that we want them to introduce a Human Rights Act, as recommended by the Consultation report. And we need to let them know that in key areas, we want them to go further than the Consultation report.

Key Points for Action: A Human Rights Act for Australia

The following points need to be raised with Members of Parliament, Senators and candidates for the federal election:

1. Commitment to the introduction of a Human Act for

Comprehensive human rights protection for Australia is long overdue. A Human Rights Act will help Australia to become a more humane, civil and just society.

2. Improve the protection of economic, social and cultural rights, giving them a status on par with civil and political rights

These are the rights that matter most to people, especially those who are the most vulnerable within our community. The right to vote or to a fair trial is undermined when people do not have the right to housing or health care.

3. Incorporate better protection of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

The National Apology in 2008 showed leadership towards reconciliation. To continue this leadership, we need much stronger protection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples rights in a new Human Rights Act.

4. Include the central rights of equality and non-discrimination

Equality and non-discrimination should be spelled out as the foundation principles of the Human Rights Act.

 

6.      Child Care and Out of School Hours Care

Across Australia, child care arrangements – or the lack thereof – have been identified as a major barrier to women’s workforce attachment. Critical problems persist in access and affordability of child-care services, out of school hours care (OSHC) and vacation care for school-age children up to age 12 years. Lack of access and costly services are key factors in prohibiting many women from study and/or workforce participation.

In 2009 a national consultation was held with women across Australia. The resulting report, ‘Barriers to Women’s Employment, Women and the Recession Project’, found that in many locations families have no access to OSHC or vacation care. This is in large part a reflection of current funding arrangements. There has also been a failure to implement Labor's 2007 election commitments to ‘stop the double drop’, or to maximise the ‘Building the Education Revolution’ program to ensure provision of adequate and appropriate facilities for OSHC and vacation care. A lack of age- and culturally-appropriate models of care was also of particular concern for women across all regions of Australia.

Shortage and costs of care facilities are major concerns and pose significant economic issues for women seeking employment. If a woman loses her job or has her working hours reduced (as many women did as a result of the Global Financial Crisis), she often needs to keep her children in childcare or OSHC due to long waiting lists and the risk of losing a care place. The costs of childcare while seeking new employment place significant burdens on household finances.

Government reports have made valuable recommendations on the provision of childcare, including:

• Provision of Childcare, Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ report on childcare1

• Making it Fair, House of Representatives Committee on Employment and Training report on pay equity2

Significantly, Making it Fair referred to the Henry Review of Australia’s Future Tax System, suggesting its recommendations on childcare should be considered along with those of the Henry Review.

In 2010 changes to both Commonwealth and State policies regarding childcare are likely. To date there has been no response to either Making it Fair or Provision of Childcare and the publication of the Henry Report and the Government response are anticipated for early 2010. However Ministerial and media reports hint at plans to remove the barriers to women’s work-force attachment, including through means such as accessible child care, parental leave, and reduction of taxation disincentives.

Also playing into possible policy changes is the outcome of Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meetings and their 2009 agreed reforms for early childhood.3 This would see higher staff-child ratios for carer providers. However there are concerns that the associated increase costs may become prohibitive for many families – creating further barriers to women’s workforce participation.

It is imperative for Government to develop new approaches which will facilitate better provision in areas of need for childcare and OSHC, and which will stimulate innovative approaches to providing age- and culturally-appropriate care services.

Key Points for Action: Improving access and affordability of Child care and Out School Hours Care

Policy changes to improve childcare, out of school hours care and vacation care are needed. The issues are complex and vary from region to region. However affordable, accessible and quality care is demanded by families across Australia.

In the lead up to the federal election, contact your Member of Parliament. Encourage them to listen to families’ experiences of childcare and out of school hours care.

Resources on women’s experiences of childcare are available! WomenSpeak has produced a film, Parents’ Voices, sharing the experiences of parents managing childcare, OSHC and vacation care. > Go to http://www.ywca.org.au/policy-and-campaigns/womenspeak to view

Security4Women have supported a study by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling on staff in out of school hours care. > Go to http://www.security4women.org.au for more details

The impact of the Global Financial Crisis on women’s employment is outlined in the report: ‘Barriers to Women’s Employment, Women and the Recession Project’.> Go to www.nfaw.org.au for more details

1 Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment & Workplace Relations, 2009, Provision of Childcare http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/eet_ctte/child_care/report/report.pdf.

2 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009, Making it Fair http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ewr/payequity/report.htm.

3 COAG agendas http://www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2009-12-07/index.cfm?CFID=485145&CFTOKEN=63297567#productivity.

 

7.   Pay Equity

It’s almost 40 years since Australian women were officially granted equal pay for equal work by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. But when comparisons are made between the male and female labour pools, there remains a persistent underpaying of women relative to men.

Achieving Pay Equity is about reducing the difference in remuneration between women and men in the workforce. Alarmingly, the disparity of income between males and females has deteriorated in many industries over the past 14 years. Young women are up to five times more likely than young men to have average weekly income of less than $150 per week and twice as likely to have average weekly income less than $600 per week.

In the prime working age brackets of 35–64 years the number of women earning above $1,300 per week are less than half that of their male colleagues. Above $2,000 a week the proportion slips to less than 25%.

Pay inequity affects a woman's career progression. A woman is approximately 50% less likely to be employed as a manager. This is despite women being equally likely to be in a full-time role in a professional capacity.

An important element of this gender inequality is the dominance of females in low productivity sectors of the economy, particularly health care and training, a bias to clerical roles and a bias to working short hours.

The workforce shows a high degree of gender segregation: low pay industries such as hospitality and retail employ many women, including young women.

Overall, the gap between male and female earnings for work of similar value is a major problem for women, affecting not only their current incomes and living standards, but also their capacity to save for retirement. Women are far more likely than men to be dependent on the Age Pension in their retirement. Women’s superannuation balances on retirement are roughly half those of men in comparable occupations.

Women’s advocates are campaigning for Pay Equity. The Equal Pay Alliance campaign has been spearheaded by the ACTU and Business Professional Women (BPW) Australia.

An important Parliamentary inquiry into Pay Equity was conducted in 2008–09 by the House of Representatives Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations.1 The inquiry’s report, Making it Fair, opens with the stark introduction: ‘the gender pay gap has grown since 1992 – we have gone backwards and the time to act is now.’

The report recommends:

• establishing a high level Pay Equity Unit in Fair Work Australia

• folding the Equal Opportunity in the Workplace Agency into Fair Work Australia

• strengthening the capacity of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner to initiate actions, and

• improving statistical data including through an Australian Industrial Relations Survey.

Other issues discussed include improving child care, and changes to superannuation policy. (See separate fact sheets for recommendations).

Key Points for Action: Pay Equity

The following points need to be raised with Members of Parliament, Senators and candidates for the federal election:

1. Commitment to implementing the recommendations of Making it Fair

Call for the adoption of the proposed reforms from the Making it Fair report as soon as possible and demand provision of funds in the 2010 Budget to implement the recommendations

2. Build support for Pay Equity with community, government and businesses

Eradication of unequal pay will be achieved with the provision of genuine choices and opportunities for women. Government and business need to work together to provide flexible work arrangements in workplaces for women and men with caring responsibilities and quality, affordable childcare including after school hours care

Women represent 50.2% of the Australian population and 45.7% of the workforce.

Women worked 7,651,000 hours in the past 12 months or 38.6% of all hours worked.

Women earned 89% of males’ income on both counts.²

1 http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ewr/payequity/report.htm.

2 Statistics from the Goldman Sachs-JB Were Research Report November 2009 Australia’s Hidden Resource-the Case for increasing female workforce participation.

 

8.        Women, Tax & Superannuation

Henry Tax Review

In May 2008 the Government established and tasked Australia’s Future Tax System Review Panel with making a whole-scale examination of Australia’s Commonwealth and State tax systems. Chaired by Dr Ken Henry, Secretary of the Department of Treasury, the process has become known as the Henry Review.

Through WomenSpeak and involving a range of women’s organisations, the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) led a project to identify gender equity issues in Australian's tax system. This resulted in a comprehensive submission to the Henry Review, specifically addressing gender inequity issues in income tax design. As the NFAW submission notes:

... Australia’s current system of income tax has become riddled with inconsistencies; in its inter-action with systems of Government welfare transfer payments it acts as a positive disincentive to female work-force participation; its burdens fall inequitably on low-middle income earning individuals and households; and the existence of a growing network of taxation expenditures penalizes these low-middle income households whilst offering free rides to the well-to-do.¹

NFAW analysis recommended progressive individual based income tax for Australia’s tax system, in order to distribute tax burden more fairly, minimise work and saving disincentive effects and reduce tax system complexity. On this basis, eight major reforms were proposed:

1. A shift toward a universal Family Tax Benefit system,

2. A revenue neutral reform that combines a more progressive Personal Income Tax rate scale with the elimination of redundant policy (such as the Low Income Tax Offset and Medicare Levy) which cloud the transparency of true rate scale and tax base changes,

3. Reforms to address the underpayment and avoidance of income taxation through tax avoidance schemes,

4. A shift towards a more balanced mix of direct versus indirect taxation (including user charges),

5. A government funded paid maternity leave scheme,

6. Referral of the development of a new funding model for childcare to the Productivity Commission,

7. Action to address the underpayment and avoidance of income tax, and

8. Laws governing Prescribed Private Funds, and all tax exempt philanthropic funds and trusts to be brought into consistency with the principle of maximum transparency. 1 NFAW Submission to Tax Review

Super System Review

Running concurrently to the Henry Review is the Governments’ Superannuation System Review, opened in 2009 and known as the Cooper Review. The Cooper Review has been charged with examining and analysing the governance, efficiency, structure and operation of Australia’s superannuation system, focusing on the best interests of members and maximising retirement incomes for Australians.

The Cooper Review is addressing a range of management issues, and does not cover the broader policy issues concerning superannuation which are being investigated within the Henry Review.

Key points for Action: Be informed, have a say!

The Henry Review’s final report was submitted to the Government in December 2009. Public release of the report, together with a Government response, is expected anytime after March 2010.

The Cooper Review is due to finalise its report for Government in late 2010.

The recommendations of the Henry Review and the Cooper Review will create extensive public debate and discussion. Women need to be part of these deliberations. It will take time for changes to tax and super law and systems to be agreed upon and implemented. During that time, the issues of women’s workforce participation, support for and due recognition of caring responsibilities carried by women, and women’s long term economic security must not be lost.

Women’s advocates are planning to release a comprehensive gender analysis of the Henry Review and Cooper Review reports – Stay in touch with the National Women’s Alliances and have a say on the changes to Australia’s tax and super systems! Bookmark www.nfaw.org.au and www.ywca.org.au for more updates.  

9.      Women and Training

The link between education and qualifications, and work force participation for women is clear. Accessing education and training can play a critical role in increasing women’s levels of employment, thereby boosting women’s long-term economic security.

Women and training has been identified as a key element of the national productivity agenda of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). In its December 2009 communiqué1, COAG agreements included new approaches to expanding apprenticeships, endorsement of a new Green Skills Agreement that will deliver skills for sustainability in the Australian training system, as well as a national regulator for the Vocational and Education Training (VET) sector. The regulator will be responsible for the registration and audit of registered training providers, and accreditation of courses, and will be established under Commonwealth legislation.

At no point does the COAG communiqué address the specific issues facing women, especially marginalised women. Australia’s training agenda needs a gender analysis which will lead to targeted approaches that can respond to women’s needs and specific life circumstances.

In 2009 women’s organisations hosted a series of consultations with women across Australia. The resulting report, ‘Barriers to Women’s Employment, Women and the Recession Project’, identified both a lack of access to training and a lack of access to care for school age children as major barriers to women’s work force participation. Women who are not formally unemployed2, or not eligible in their own right for income security supports are ineligible for financial assistance through VET courses.

There is a paucity of national support for mentoring and social support programs to assist women into and through training. There is inadequate government financial support available to women from refugee or migrant groups to develop language skills to a level that would enable them to participate in TAFE and VET programs. ‘Sudden death’ cut-off from childcare and mentoring supports for those women exiting Jobs, Education and Training (JET) programs is another disincentive to work-force attachment, particularly for young women with dependent children.

In consultations across Australia, women have raised their concerns about the lack of direct links between training and job opportunities. Women report their frustration at working through a range of short courses without being able to find suitable work after completing their training. One problem is the reluctance of employers to hire people without work experience. Paid work experience after training will enhance women’s employment prospects, boost confidence and expose them to the a variety of workplace cultures – assisting women to make informed choices about their job selection.

Key Points for Action: A Gender Strategy for Training

Women deserve a visionary training framework that enhances women’s participation in the career or vocational sectors of their choice. This needs to include challenging the norms of gender-association with ‘feminised’ or ‘masculinised’ work industries, and opening doors to women to access relevant and affordable training that are linked to real employment prospects.

Women’s advocates are urged to raise the following points with Members of Parliament, Senators and candidates for the 2010 federal election:

• The Commonwealth and the States and Territories need to re-frame their national productivity agenda with a training framework to appropriately address the needs of women.

• Government’s long-term strategies for Vocational and Educational Training (VET) programs needs to include a gender analysis that will result in a strategic plan for women’s training needs.

• Data analysis is critical. Analysing and publishing gender disaggregated data on training will highlight the gaps and needs for women, and allow for specific improvement targets to be set.

Resources

WAVE (Women in Adult and Vocational Education) have online resources exploring the issues for women in training. > Go to www.wave.org.au

1. http://www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2009-12-07/index.cfm?CFID=485145&CFTOKEN=63297567#productivity.

2. Definitions for unemployment as used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics include those people who were not employed for more than hour in the past week, those actively looking for work in the past four weeks, or those waiting to begin a new job in the next four weeks and available to start work immediate. Many women who want to join the workforce do not fit these criteria, and so are not considered ‘formally unemployed’. 

10.      Women and transport

Availability and suitability of transport is never far from our public and policy debates. In Australia’s States and Territories, and across our capital cities, numerous studies and policy announcements on public and private transport have been released. Transport is also on the agenda of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). Yet the debate seems endless and repetitive; and consequently slow to deliver new services to support changing population needs.

 

State capital cities’ transport plans are variously comprehensive. Most proposals seem focussed on better public transport for commuters and improving access for high growth, un-serviced transport corridors.

Of concern is the lack of attention paid to the needs of the aging population and the needs of carers whose travel patterns are not merely commuting directly to and from employment. There is also an almost total absence of transport data with a gender component or analysis.

 

Resources which do provide an introduction to the analysis of transport from a gender perspective include:

1. Examination of commuter issues by The Australia Institute in 2005, though with only a preliminary analysis of gender issues. See ‘Off to Work – Commuting in Australia’, TAI Discussion Paper 78, 2005, www.tai.org.au

2. Discussion of gender issues in the choice of car by young people and accidents flowing from the Monash University Accident Research Centre’s ‘wrong cars study’. See www.themotorreport.com.au/47256/young-drivers-choosing-the-wrong-cars-study.

 

What is needed: Funding for a gender analysis of transport usage

A gender analysis of transport usage, including identifying gender issues that impact on public transport policy, is urgently needed. This is important for long term transport planning purposes, but takes on more urgency in the context of the Henry Tax Review. Road pricing reform is on the agenda of the Henry Review. Dr Ken Henry, chair of Australia’s Future Tax System Review Panel and Secretary to the Treasury, has noted in public speeches:

...Road pricing reform. There would be few areas in economics where such a clear and rational set of policy directions have so consistently lagged in practice. ...the case for change needs to be made. It is fast becoming one of the biggest public policy issues of the age.

We need innovative ways of dealing with the community’s distributional concerns. For example, some truck operators might support road pricing as long as the costs they pay are reflected in better roads — their ‘compensation’ is a better functioning road network...There are some instructive examples overseas. In London, commuters were ‘compensated’ through additional funding for public transport. An innovative study in Seattle gave some drivers credits to pay to drive on congested roads and let them cash in the savings they made by driving at off-peak times or choosing other modes of transport.¹

Speculation is that the Henry Review will recommend user charging for private and commercial trips.

What are the gender issues of transport?

One significant gender issue is how travel patterns impact on women’s employment and women seeking employment. Consider the following:

• What are the gender issues of current design of public transport links between the suburbs and CBDs (which cater for single destination trips and is largely based on male worker stereotypes)?

• What is the propensity of women using public transport versus private cars to get to work?

• Women transporting children to child care or school would most likely use the family car. The journey may also include more than one destination, or multiple trips with the ‘double-drop off’, as childcare and schools are rarely co-located. What issues does that present for women?

• What is the availability of transport services that cater for the less mobile (and their carers) as they seek to access health care, shopping or necessary services?

• How would an increase in female workforce attachment (more women in work, and more women working full time) affect travel time figures?

Of concern with a user-pay model for road pricing reform is the restriction and limitation many women may then experience with work and family transport demands. For instance, would user-pay charges exacerbate women being affectively restricted in their employment choices, compelling some women to work close to home, or seek part-time work to avoid peak traffic periods?

Next steps

Women and transport needs more attention, more debate, and more considered policy options. WomenSpeak is commissioning a preliminary scoping study to investigate in more depth the gender issues of transport. This paper will aim to

• Set out current policy context

• Review current gender analysis of public transport and infrastructure

• Identify gaps for further research

This work will enable women’s advocates to provide a comprehensive response to recommendations in the Henry Tax Review. For more information on women and transport contact womenspeak@ywca.org.au.

1. Address by Dr Ken Henry to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), 15 October 2009.

 12.     Women's Health

National Women’s Health Policy

The Federal Government is currently developing a National Women’s Health Policy, commencing with the 2009 release of Developing a National Women’s Health Policy: Consultation Paper and followed by a series of community consultations.

As outlined in the comprehensive submission from the Australian Women’s Health Network (AWHN)¹, a National Women’s Health Policy needs to be based on a ‘social determinants framework’, which includes gendered analysis. A social determinants approach for women’s health policy is crucial because it identifies inequalities between groups of women who are in different social and economic positions.

A large proportion of Australian women’s poor health outcomes are avoidable, resulting in unnecessary suffering, service use, hospitalisation and expense for individuals, taxpayers and governments. International research shows clearly that countries with strong primary health care (contrasted with primary medical care) have much better health outcomes.

Primary health care, including primary prevention and community development, is best delivered by teams of health workers, including a range of allied health professionals, as well as primary care trained doctors and nurses. Community development projects, which inform, involve and empower citizens, particularly women, are strongly preventative. Community control is particularly important: it allows community input into health care decision-making, itself an empowering and thus health-giving experience. Australian women, including Aboriginal women, have indicated time and again that they wish to be involved in decisions about their health and health care.

Outreach into the communities in which they are located is a very important component of women’s health and Aboriginal community based service delivery. Outreach enables centres to connect with those most at risk of poor health outcomes, especially the excluded and the marginalised, often the very people missed by conventional medical services. However, for outreach services to be spread equitably, in a geographic sense, women’s health and Aboriginal centres need far greater resources

Moreover, to be effective in building healthy public policy, the new National Women’s Health Policy must seek to influence sectors beyond the traditional health portfolio. For example, economic security, freedom from violence and economic and geographical access to a full range of appropriate services, including support services, transport, housing, sexual and reproductive health services and medical and hospital services are essential for good health outcomes.

Changes to Private Midwifery Care

 

In Australia today the legality of giving birth at home with a qualified midwife in attendance is under threat. This situation has emerged from the meeting point of two pieces of Commonwealth legislation which eliminate the ability for a woman to contract a private midwife to provide homebirth services.