Are the issues that matter to Australian women going to be taken seriously in the election campaign this year?
The upcoming election means months of breathless reporting on petty squabbles and mindless point scoring, but it also means politicians have to start paying at least some attention to public opinion and make an effort to addressing the concerns of their constituents as well as their donors.
Turnbull has some real challenges to deal with, his Genial Gentleman of the People persona will only take him so far. He needs to prove his leadership has made a change to the party that brought down the most divisive and unpopular budget in decades or risk sliding back into the hole Tony Abbott dug for his government.
So far, Turnbull hasn’t done much to prove he’s not just all mouth and well-tailored trousers, but opinion polls still put him a fair way ahead of Shorten. If Labor is able to prove they could provide some serious alternative economic and welfare policies, they might be able to close that gap.
Admittedly, that’s a fairly big “if”.
An election year now also means that, for the first time in a federal election, women’s issues might have a chance of becoming a key consideration in the fight.
And “women’s issues” are more than just photo opps with Rosie Batty, they’re more than just concerned head shakes about domestic violence, and pushing a couple more women to the front of the dark suits and blue tie brigade.
They’re about the issues that affect all Australian women, the ones we’ve been talking about for years and are still waiting on action to back up platitudes.
These are the questions I want to see regularly pushed at politicians from all parties over the next few months:
Asylum seekers. How much longer are both the major parties going to tell us that the rape and abuse of women, children and men is the only way to protect our borders? How do they justify this to themselves, let alone anyone else? Is that really the only way to manage the refugee crisis? Really? Torture camps is all you can come up with? Making it a criminal offence for doctors to report abuse is all you’ve got? Stripping privacy and human rights are the cleverest ideas you can think of? If that is the best you can do, how do you expect us to believe you are able to address complex policy in other areas?
Gender wealth disparity. What are you going to do about it? Do not just make frowny faces and wah wah mouth noises about merit (pah!). Are you going to require all companies and government departments to report on their gender pay gaps and gender balance in executive teams? Are you going to set targets and impose penalties on organisations that do not improve their results? If not, why not?
Superannuation. The gender gap in retirement is substantial and gets worse as women live longer. This is a serious problem, not just for the aging population, but for all women. And again, no wah wah mouth noises about allowing women to “catch up” when we know that women’s salaries never increase at the same rate as men’s, particularly when they’ve taken time out of the workforce for unpaid carer’s duties. What policies are you going to introduce to encourage flexible work for women and men so the burden of unpaid work is shared equally?
Equal representation in government. Particularly in the Liberal party. Labor is almost at parity and committed to 50/50 by 2025 (why not sooner if all you’ve got to do is make up another 5%?) but the government and cabinet is still overwhelming dominated by white men and it’s well past time that was addressed.
Equal representation outside government. In the judiciary, media, medicine, sport, movies, books, pretty much everywhere except unpaid work and undervalued labour. While the Federal government cannot address state government or private sector employment practices, they can lead by example and by insisting on parity in all government appointments. If they’re not going to do that, why not?
Domestic violence Destroy the Joint’s Counting Dead Women project reported 79 women killed by violence in 2015. At the time of writing there were another 4 already this year. Hundreds of thousands of women and children are suffering at the hands of violent men in their homes. What is the government going to do to provide assistance for those women and remove, punish and re-educate those men? What are they going to do about the desperately underfunded crisis centres and community legal services? What policies do you have about educating children about consent, violence and respect? Labor has actually put forward a policy that is at least a good start. Is the government going to match it? Improve on it? If not, why not?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. The horrendous gap in health, education, violence, incarceration, early death and mental health between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians hasn’t changed significantly in decades. Aboriginal women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised because of domestic violence than non-aboriginal women. Incarceration for victimless crimes (unpaid fines) for Aboriginal women has increased by over 500% in the last decade. We don’t need to hear more politicians tell us that’s terrible, we already know that. What are they going to do about it?
If the political parties aren’t going to act on these issues I want to know why. Is it because they don’t think they’re important? Is it because they don’t care? Is it because they don’t think men will support them? It is apathy, ignorance or resistance? Because none of those answers are good enough.
Women have been fighting for hundreds of years to improve their legal, social and financial position, and we have made huge leaps forward from the days when women were not allowed to vote, own property, hold jobs or public positions. Anyone who thinks all that impetus for change has run its course is just not paying attention. The thing about change is that it doesn’t just stop, each step forward makes the next step easier and all the gains we’ve made have just given women more power to demand the right to equal access to opportunity. Smart politicians might want to remember that, and realise that fighting with us could benefit them far more than fighting against us.