What if 2025 could be a pivotal year for Australia in areas like ending violence against women, valuing the care economy and closing gender gaps?
What if we could finally harness the ideas and resources necessary to make such things an actual future reality?
Australia is due for a federal election by May, so the opportunity for a ‘pivotal year’ in policymaking is ripe.
And we’re hardly short of ideas, reports, research, royal commissions, or even money regarding what needs to be done.
But what is standing in the way is the ego, safety and ambitions of individual politicians and potentially even the agendas of some of the richest men in the world (take a look at the latest on Elon Musk’s plans for US politics) – but we’ll have plenty of time to discuss that later on.
For now, here’s a start on a broad wishlist regarding what could lead to meaningful change for women and everyone in Australia.
Back the talk on ending violence against women with funding and unity
The Albanese Government has a plan to end violence against women in a lifetime. Members of the Coalition have been vocal on violence against women, but the issue hasn’t been a priority.
We need all sides of politics to take the issues seriously, with 101 Australian women killed by violence in 2024, according to Australian Femicide Watch.
We need promises that go beyond grand statements and rhetoric to deliver enough funding to adequately fund frontline services, as well as for targeted responses for key groups, including Aboriginal women.
We need a major boost in funding for existing domestic and family violence services, as well as for specialist services.
We need more immediate and future funding for social and affordable homes.
We need more transitional homes to support those escaping crisis.
We need a stronger national response to state and territory police responses, bail approaches, court decisions and how we prioritise the safety of victim-survivors.
We need more political leaders sharing the names and stories of survivors to help Australians grasp the human impact of the devastating toll of violence against women.
We don’t need a Royal Commission as previously pledged by the Oppostiion. Instead, as Domestic Violence NSW has suggested in response to the Federal Cabinet on the issue, we need a review of existing domestic and family violence strategies and plans and recommendations from previous inquiries.
Just as NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage said, issuing her final recommendations following an investigation into the domestic violence killings of four Aboriginal women, which also included adequate funding across areas like frontline services and the emergency response, “none of these are radical”.
End ‘normalisation’ of women’s economic inequality
In October 2023, the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, chaired by the now Governor General Sam Mostyn, highlighted the opportunity to dismantle the “normalisation” of women’s economic inequality to highlight instead the value of the contributions and potential of women.
This taskforce recommended moving from “costs” to a conversation of “investment” and said Australia can gain $128 billion by unlocking women’s full and equal economic participation.
The Albanese Government received the report and the list of excellent recommendations for ending economic inequality. It’s done some tinkering around with some such recommendations but hasn’t promised to implement them in full.
This report and these recommendations must not be forgotten in favour of simply launching a new such taskforce with another name as a means to say you’re doing something.
The path here must include continuing to back and fund pay rises for those across the care economy, which is predominantly made up of women. There has been progress here for aged care nurses and for early childhood educators — progress that has had a demonstrated impact on the national gender pay gap — but current and further progress risks becoming a political fight.
Improve women’s healthcare, and don’t touch reproductive rights
In 2024, Australia achieved something seriously impressive: reaching the milestone of every state and territory and finally decriminalising abortion.
In 2025, we cannot let this good work come undone – and should continue the fight to ensure equal opportunity and access to reproductive rights and healthcare services.
However, this requires political leaders to remain vigilant against forces (within their parties and outside of it) that seek to push misinformation and disinformation and their political egos in a bid to put reproductive rights on the agenda and ultimately establish a path for undermining them.
Instead, we want to see politicians extending on the recent progress achieved on some of the key healthcare needs of women – including those that have been largely overlooked, underresearched and underfunded in the past.
We need more research and funding for the areas of women’s health that have been sidelined and ignored, and more emphasis on ending the medical misogyny that has long plagued healthcare and has been receiving good attention thanks to the work of the current Assistant Minister for Health, Ged Kearney.
Pursue the path to universal early childhood education and care
Childcare isn’t a “women’s issue”. It’s a family issue, but enabling more accessible and affordable options would help women’s economic security and the economy.
It would be good for kids too, given the evidence highlighting the positive impacts of quality early childhood education.
Universal childcare allows every child to participate in early childhood education and, for more parents to participate in the paid workforce if they need or choose to do so. We’ve had some momentum on this issue, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledging the structural barriers to care – that limit parents from accessing the childcare subsidy and looking to make quality, affordable and accessible childcare a key election issue.
There’s a good reason why the Productivity Commission has recommended the scrapping of the activity test and that all children aged up to five should have access to at least 30 hours a week of early childhood education.
Spotlight women’s poverty and commit to ending it
Women’s economic security remains precarious, seeing several key groups doing it tough, including older women with little to no superannuation and single mothers who make up the vast majority of sole-parent households.
These are groups that have less political clout and power than others. They’re too busy being in survival mode for themselves and their families. Or, they continue to be easy targets for blame regarding “women’s choices”.
This election year, political leaders must spotlight some of the additional challenges these groups face – and examine policy responses that better target these groups as an opportunity rather than a cost.
Firm action on climate change
This election is set to be the nuclear election, with Opposition leader Peter Dutton pursuing the strategy as key to Australia’s energy future.
But Australia can’t wait to build a nuclear capacity in the mission to reduce and ultimately end our reliance on fossil fuels.
Australia can be a world leader on clean, renewable energy. Our emissions reduction target must go further than the weak ambitions already stated. And we can’t afford to see more coal fire station expansion approvals, as occurred under the Albanese Government.
Meanwhile, Australia needs a stronger response to mitigate the impacts of the climate risks we already face.
As we’ve previously outlined in our special report on The Climate Load, the impacts of climate change disasters – including bushfires, floods and heatwaves – have an exacerbated impact on women, with links to an increase in domestic and family violence and more unpaid workloads put on women. 2025 is the year to commit to further investigating the impacts of climate change on women and marginalised groups and committing to action on adaptation methods that can immediately anticipate and then address these impacts following a disaster.
Leadership for everyone
Leadership from elected officials will be critical to help in easing social disorder and prevent further divides between groups, including gender divides that have been widening across political lines globally.
Such leadership means appealing to policies that can have a genuine impact on the country rather than policies that support party alliances and put individual ego over the greater good.
It’s a big, ambitious ask.
Indeed, it will be tempting for some to stir up a “zero-sum game” mentality, the idea that supporting women means pushing men down or out of the way, to play into some of the grievances internationally that have backed populist movement and bolstered far-right politicians.