The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) have released their Budget 2021 gender analysis papers, which examine the impact of the Federal Budget on women.
ACOSS: Single Mothers, Older Women ‘Left Behind’
The ACOSS Post-Budget Gender Analysis finds that women on low incomes, including single parents and older women, are ‘being left behind’.
The ACOSS analysis shows that more than thirty times the amount of funding pledged in the Women’s Budget Statement is going into tax cuts, which do nothing to help women on low incomes.
ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:
In the lead up to the Federal Budget, women banded together to send a strong message that ‘Enough is Enough’.
While the Government has heard these calls to some extent, with some welcome initiatives targeted at women, overall, the Budget does not meaningfully deliver on the need for structural and cultural change.
Instead, the Federal Budget, like many budgets before, locks in gender inequality by failing to address that our tax, employment and superannuation systems are stacked in favour of men.
At the same time, the Budget does nothing to specifically support single mothers on low incomes or older women struggling to find paid work and facing homelessness.
The Family Home Guarantee low home loan deposit avenue will do nothing to help women on the lowest incomes secure affordable housing, including 450,000 older women at risk of homelessness.
To help women on low incomes, we needed to see social security payments brought above the poverty line; employment services that deal with gender and age discrimination; and investment in affordable housing.
In contrast, $30 billion a year is going out the door in income and business tax cuts, which as a package will entrench gender inequality and endanger future funding for services that women rely on.
Key issues highlighted include:
- Tax breaks reinforce gender income inequality
- The budget failed to deliver the income support increase needed urgently for women on low incomes
- The lack of affordable housing for women on low income women
- Labour market programs do not meet women’s needs of women
- More investment is needed in the care workforce and to improve pay and conditions for women
- Further action is needed in child care to meet the needs of single mothers and First Nations communities
- Super reform is needed to address women’s lower retirement incomes
- More funding is needed to support women’s safety, crisis and support services, and economic security.
Download ACOSS Post-Budget Gender Analysis – Spotlight on the Budget: Impact on women on low incomes
NFAW Gender Lens on the Budget 2021-22
The NFAW Genders Lens on the Budget 2021-22 is edited by Helen Hodgson and Marie Coleman.
This year, as women are demanding change, and the economy is reshaped for a post-COVID world, the Government had the opportunity to invest in real structural solutions which would boost female employment, address the gender pay gap and create real productivity gains through higher wages in the female dominated care industries workforce. The NFAW Gender Lens on the Budget breaks down each aspect of the budget to see how women will fare.
Introductory
Portfolio overviews and recommendations
Machinery of Government
Net impacts on particular groups of women
Revenue
Infrastructure Spending
Social services
Social services – Income Support
Social services – Pensioner Loan Scheme
Social services – Parenting payments
Social services – Parents Next
Education and training
Early childhood education and care
Employment
Health
Reducing violence against women and their children
International aid
Editors and Contributors
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