The Greens say the Morrison Government has bungled its last chance to show it takes women\u2019s safety and economic security seriously with an underwhelming budget of half-measures and spin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens deputy leader and spokesperson on women Senator Larissa Waters said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith an election looming it\u2019s little wonder that the Morrison Government is desperately trying to improve its standing with Australian women, who have been abandoning the Liberals in droves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut this ain\u2019t it. While some announcements are a step in the right direction, and we particularly welcome the $25 million allocated to the Illawarra Trauma Recovery Centre that the Greens have championed, the budget is largely a grab bag of bare-minimum measures that fall well short of what we know is needed to make women safe and ensure their economic security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe funding to address gendered violence is well short of what women\u2019s organisations say is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens have committed to the sector\u2019s call for $1 billion per annum for frontline services to meet existing demand, because it is unconscionable to underfund services which stop women being killed in this epidemic of domestic violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhilst awareness raising and training is crucial, it should be additional to rather than instead of the frontline and specialist services that the sector says are needed to meet the critical shortfall in support for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe government\u2019s so-called \u2018enhanced\u2019 paid parental leave plan doesn\u2019t increase PPL payments, doesn\u2019t add superannuation contributions, and does nothing to actually incentivize shared care. In fact it may have the perverse effect of leading mothers to take all 20 weeks of parenting leave with fathers taking none. Under the Greens\u2019 26-week PPL plan payments would match salaries up to $100k, super would be added, and \u2018use it or lose it\u2019 incentives built in to encourage shared parenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe $100 million promised for crisis, transition and affordable housing is pitifully small compared to the $7.6 billion investment the sector says is needed to provide emergency and permanent housing for women, particularly older women at risk of homelessness. The much-trumpeted expansion of the Family Home Guarantee is no help because it will simply increase house prices and encourage people to get into debts that they cannot service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe government has also shown a stunning lack of commitment to addressing violence against First Nations women. Instead of a dedicated, standalone National Plan to End Violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women, they\u2019re saying there will be a First Nations \u2018action plan\u2019 sitting under the overarching National Plan. That is clearly not what First Nations groups have called for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019ve also baked in real cuts to community controlled First Nations family violence services over the forward estimates, and delivered no funding at all for the sector\u2019s peak body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis Budget will not close the gender pay gap. Childcare is still not free, care work is still undervalued, and the minimum wage and income support payments, which more women than men receive, are still too low. This Budget will not deliver economic security for women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe welcome the additional funds for the Human Rights Commission to monitor Respect at Work recommendations, but this is undermined by broader cuts to the Commission\u2019s budget and the fact that there is still no commitment to the key recommendation: a positive duty on all employers to make workplaces safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralian women have spent nearly a decade trying to convince this government that their safety and economic security are issues that must be taken seriously. But in place of decisive and material action they\u2019ve been served up talkfests, Cabinet reshuffles, flowery speeches and shiny baubles by a toxic and arrogant government that treats women as a PR problem to be managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was the PM\u2019s last opportunity to stand up for Australian women. Once again he failed because he is a sexist dinosaur – it\u2019s long past time to give him and his boys\u2019 club the boot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens say the Morrison Government has bungled its last chance to show it takes women\u2019s safety and economic security seriously with an underwhelming budget of half-measures and spin. Greens deputy leader and spokesperson on women Senator Larissa Waters said: \u201cWith an election looming it\u2019s little wonder that the Morrison Government is desperately trying to … Continue reading “Greens: Budget of spin and half-measures leaves Australian women underwhelmed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15838,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15837\/revisions\/15838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}