The Women’s Budget Statement (WBS) 2022-23 is an assortment of policies that has the potential to positively impact gender equality outcomes over time.
With women’s workforce participation at a record high (62.4 percent), the fact remains that the nature of the employment is part time (with women comprising 70 percent of part-time workers) and in industries that are traditionally lower paid – NDIS, Aged Care, Health Care, Child Care, and teaching[1].
In private sector organisations with more than 100 employees, the gender pay gap measured by base salary for all employees is 18.3 percent and 23.8 percent for all non-managerial employees[2].
In terms of women’s safety, the Treasurer mentioned in his Budget Speech that one woman is killed from intimate partner violence every eleven days.
Given these statistics, there are three main focusses for the Government’s WBS: women’s safety, women’s economic security, and women’s health and well-being.
Overall, there is an extension of the Government’s $3.4 billion investment made in 2021-22 by adding a further $2.1 billion.
A significant proportion of the Government’s added investment, $1.3 billion, is to be put towards the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. This plan is comprised of four pillars - prevention, early intervention, response, and recovery – and consists of:
Almost $500 million is being invested in women’s economic security as this is regarded as an economic priority for Australia.
Measures being addressed include barriers to workforce participation and drivers of the gender pay gap; primarily, flexibility and choice for women and families to manage work and care, supporting pathways into more diverse jobs, and creating new leadership pathways for women.
Notable is the Enhanced Paid Parental Leave Scheme for Families, although it remains to be seen whether childcare remains predominantly with women or we see an equal uptake by men supported by their workplaces to take family leave.
New initiatives include increased funding for the Workplace Gender Equality Act (WGEA) to drive progress towards gender equality and for the Community Child Care Fund to provide childcare in regional and remote areas where no childcare currently exists.
Other initiatives to help secure women’s economic status are:
There are new initiatives in women’s wellness including the addition of Trodelvy, an expensive and often therefore unattainable breast cancer drug, to the PBS. Other initiatives are for pelvic pain and the detection and treatment of endometriosis, which is a crippling and often misdiagnosed condition affecting approximately 11 percent of women and girls[3]. This cannot be undervalued. Other substantial initiatives include:
Underlying this and other women’s measures is an increase in funding to support the collection of data and statistical analysis to guide future investments.
In conjunction with the WBS, there are Budget initiatives that indirectly serve women which include targeted programs that on a proportionate basis are likely to reach more women. Some examples of these initiatives are the NDIS and Aged Care funding for training and the $800 cash boosts. Others include:
The WBS 2022-2023 is an expansive list of targeted and much needed measures well overdue for funding. The continuing challenge will be the upward trajectory on the equality spend regardless of the competing budgetary pressures that are likely due to the increases in Defence spend, a fully funded NDIS, and the possible further support that the Aged Care industry will need.
Check out the full coverage from the Federal Budget 2022-23, which will continue to develop throughout the week as new insights and video content are published.
[1] WGEA and ABS statistics accessed 29 March 2022
[2] ibid
[3] Endometriosis Australia accessed 29 March 2022