It’s the final day of campaigning and guess what? We STILL haven’t heard a huge amount about women’s workforce participation from either party, despite our hopes five weeks ago.
As noted yesterday, childcare’s been one of the few policy areas that’s been given much attention on this, especially via a signature policy announcement from Labor.
Our childcare system is in serious need of reform, but it’s not the only measure that matters for female workforce participation and for women more generally.
On Thursday, the Diversity Council of Australia’s released its survey of the major parties regarding their stance on diversity and inclusion – covering areas like women’s workforce participation, domestic violence, equal pay, people with disabilities, carers, indigenous Australians, mature age workers, cultural diversity, LGBTI+ employees and flexible work.
Both the Coalition and Labor party released fairly extensive responses to the DCA’s survey that are each worth reading before making your vote tomorrow.
Regarding women’s workforce participation, equal pay and domestic violence, we wanted to share a little from their responses below.
Workforce participation
On Workforce participation, the Turnbull Government cited its “strong record of support for women and gender equality” (note — the Abbott Government not mentioned). It says a “strong economy” is key to improving gender equality and economic security for women. Hence it plans to balance the budget over time, enabling it to, “ease the tax burden, boost productivity and investment, and drive jobs and growth”.
Noting women will retire with 35% less superannuation than men, it said its comprehensive package of superannuation reforms will help women accumulate more by supporting women to make catch-up payments, extending current spouse tax offsets and better supporting low income earners.
The Labor party, meanwhile, discussed its childcare package as key to raising women’s workforce participation, with plans to increase the Child Care Benefit by 15% and the Child Care Rebate cap from $7,500 to $10,000. It said it will continue the paid parental leave scheme the party originally introduced in 2011 as a “modest and affordable” offering.
Domestic Violence
On domestic violence, the Turnbull Government pointed to it existing commitments to claim it’s made addressing the issue a national priority. Such commitments and spending include the $278 million it spends across portfolios to “make Australian communities safer”, $100 million committed in the 2016/17 Budget to deliver a Third Action Plan on reducing violence against women and children, and the $100 million Women’s Safety Package announced last September.
The Labor party said a Shorten Government would provide five days of paid domestic and family violence leave in the National Employment Standards, making sure such leave becomes a “workplace right”. It’s declared it will also provide educational support to employers to meet the news standards.
Labor’s also promised to commission a National Crisis Summit within 100 days of coming to government, in a bid to get Commonwealth, state and territory governments to agree to urgently implement new judical and social services reforms to better deal with the problem.
Equal pay
Finally on pay equity, where the national gender pay gap continues to hover around the 17% mark. The Coalition claims it recognises a “number of factors” are contributing to the pay gap like gender bias and limited access to flexible work, and noted its “committed to diversity in leadership” as evidence of how it plans to reduce the gap. Aside from this, it couldn’t point to many specific measures for reducing the pay gap.
The Coalition’s announced a 50% female target for women on Australian Government boards, and says it’s also working closely with a number of private sector organisations like the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chief Executive Women to assist in providing mentoring and scholarship programs.
The Labor plan for closing the gap will include allocating $3.8 million to Working Women’s Centres to offer advice services to vulnerable women, and noted it will continue its campaign to support retaining penalty rates – declaring women make up a disproportionate share of workers likely to be affected by cuts to such rates.
Meanwhile, Labor’s also promised to establish Women’s Advisory Committees and Diversity Units in all Federal Government departments, which will set and report on gender targets. It will also work across portfolios to ensure public service leaders are given KPIs that specifically address diversity and inclusion, with their performance assessed against such measures.
On Women in leadership, the Labor party said its “committed to increasing the representation of women in parliament and in the private sector”, and referred to its National Conference last year that amended Party rules to ensure that by 2025, 50% of Labor’s members of Parliament will be female.
The party also plans to introduce a 50% target for the representation of women on Australian boards by the end of its first term, and work with the ASX 100 to raise the number of women on private boards. It’s also announced a $4.5 million grants program to encourage more girls to learn to code.
Here’s the Women’s Agenda verdict without telling you how to vote: There’s a lot of rhetoric regarding the issues above, but still not much of a solid plan from either party for seriously shifting the dial on the figures that matter: the gender pay gap, the number of women in leadership (particularly across corporate Australia), the female workforce participation rate, and the systemic rate of domestic violence.
Whatever happens tomorrow, we’ll need to remain vigilant in ensuring these issues stay firmly on the agenda.
Read the Coalition’s full response to the DCA survey here.
Read Labor’s full response to the DCA survey here.