Budget 2024: A Mixed Bag for Women and Girls

MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday 14 May 2024

Budget 2024 – A Mixed Bag for Women and Girls

Equality Rights Alliance, one of the six National Women’s Alliances, has offered cautious applause for the 2024 budget. ERA is a network of more than 70 NGOs with a focus on women’s human rights and achieving gender quality in Australia.

“Broadly speaking, this budget shows that the Government continues to be committed to improving outcomes for women and also that it understands the structural changes required to achieve gender equality in Australia,” said Helen Dalley-Fisher, Convenor of the Equality Rights Alliance.

“We are particularly pleased to see the focus on addressing the undervaluing of women’s work, especially in care industries,” said Ms Dalley-Fisher. “The commitment to fund increases to ECEC workers is a significant step forward in efforts to properly compensate women’s undervalued work and builds on the work in last year’s budget which boosted aged care wages.”

ERA is also pleased to see the commitment to VET training for women. “VET is a sector which has been neglected for many years and yet provides vital pathways for women to retrain across their working lives. The commitment in the National Skills Agreement to improve VET outcomes for women ($250M to be matched by States and Territories) is welcome. The new Commonwealth Prac Payment for nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students is also a welcome addition” added Ms Dalley-Fisher.

The previously announced decision to fund superannuation contributions on the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme is also a critical step towards boosting women’s retirement incomes and ERA also strongly welcome the amendments to the stage three tax cuts, which reduce the gender inequality inherent in the original proposal.

“However, we are concerned that the government’s approach to valuing women’s work has not extended to the community sector, with no support offered for increasing the wages of workers responding to gender-based violence, homelessness or legal needs. Recruiting and retaining staff to work in shelters and support services is notoriously difficult,” said Ms Dalley-Fisher.

“A similar story can be found in women’s homelessness shelters and supported accommodation. The community sector is a strongly women-dominated sector, and women are the majority of people using the services it provides. The inclusion of an additional $44.1m in 2024-25 to support the National Legal Assistance Partnership and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services amounts to an indexation of existing funding only and doesn’t address the underfunding of wages for these workers.”

ERA also notes that there appears to be only an indexation increase to the funding of the National Women’s Alliances (including ERA), which were found in a 2023 review to be underfunded and reliant on the unpaid work of women. This is especially concerning given that the Alliances are expected to be heavily involved in the delivery of the government’s National Strategy for Gender Equality: Working for Women.

ENDS

For more information and interviews, please contact Helen Dalley-Fisher on 0413 065 822. Equality Rights Alliance (ERA) is Australia’s largest network of organisations advocating for women’s economic security and women’s leadership. We bring together 70 organisations with an interest in advancing gender equality at the national level. You can find more information about us and our work at www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au or on X/Twitter: @eraaustralia and Linked In: Equality-rights-alliance.

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