Government realises women are good workers

Analysis: Finally a budget that doesn’t pander to women.

Finally a budget that doesn’t pander to women.

This article is an expert opinion provided by The Oz's Editorial Director Jenna Clarke.

Finally “women’s issues” are no longer being considered niche or nice to haves or being spoken about in relation to ironing and electricity bills.

Finally the government, with a 72-page manifesto of a Women’s Budget Statement, recognises the productivity and economic power of Australian women and modern families.

The Women’s Budget Statement is only a recent addition to the annual accounts. When it launched it was a thin appendix. In 2022-23 it reads like a poignant, thought-provoking Joan ­Didion essay.

Pre-pandemic it was waif-thin on policy, like Kate Moss in the heroin-chic days of the 1990s boasting 1950s platitudes. Now it’s as voluptuous as a Kardashian, bursting at the seams with in-depth policy, measured ideas and modes on how to make women’s lives easier, safer, healthier and more prosperous.

Leadership, security, health and wellbeing have been identified as being priorities that are “mutually reinforcing” elements that will see “positive benefits” for the economy and society.

Covid, it appears, has been great for the ladies and families of Australia.

A successful attention-seeking opportunity which forced the boffins and bureaucrats to look under the mattress for more cash. What they found was a yet-to-be-fully-realised cohort – baby-making machines who can also stimulate a stimulus.

Women lift, lean and carry most of the load quietly, and do it cheaply too. The gender pay gap right now is real, and sits at 13.8 per cent. The government now wants large employers to be transparent about salaries in a bid to encourage more transparency and financial equality.

Women mature at a faster rate than men, so it makes sense women already knew this. We’ve just been waiting for the men in charge to catch up.

This new statement was pulled together by three female ministers, Marise Payne, Anne Ruston and Jane Hume, is the legislative equivalent of grabbing politics by the collar and dragging it into the modern age.

An era where domestic labour is shared. Atime where more men want to do more than just “help out” with child rearing. A generation of single parents who want to work and own their own home.

Single parents will be given the opportunity to get into a new home and access the new, streamlined childcare regimes and parental leave legislation. A scheme that’ll be extended by two weeks and make it easier for blokes to take up the incentive to stay home. Childcare is finally being ­realised as an economic security issue. More than 259,000 families use childcare. Last year only 0.5 per cent of parents who used the paid-parental leave were men.

More women will be added to government and public boards, more women will be lured into STEM, mining and skill trades.

A $1.3bn plan to end violence looks like lip-service until you look under the hood to see it’ll focus on prevention as well as emergency assistance.

Terms like “coercive control”, “financial abuse” and “tech-facilitated abuse” feature in the budget, which is a giant leap forward for a conservative government. Identifying the problem is the first step in solving it.

The e-Safety Commission will be granted more cash to educate and help young Australian women to navigate the online space. Organisations like No To Violence, which focuses on working with men who use violence in the home and against women, have been granted extra funding to roll out more prevention and rehabilitation campaigns.

This budget was pulled together to flirt with and potentially lure back young and middle-aged women to team blue. The opposition would be bonkers to not sign up to any of these measures. Well played ­ladies. Great wedge by the government. Now let’s get to work on building a safer, equitable and more sustainable Australia.