5 Small Policy Changes That Will See More Women Succeed
If you’ve been keeping an eye on politics, then you will see that there’s $2.1 billion allocated to the Women’s Budget for 2022 and 2023. There are 5 key policy priorities in that budget that should make it easier for women to succeed in the workforce and in business.
We turned to Sonia Gibson of Accounting Heart to explain the changes that are going to help boost women’s opportunities for success in Australia in the coming year.
The Changes That Will Boost Women’s Success In Australia
Lower Child Care Fees
The government will be diverting additional resources into childcare (they say up from $6.2 billion just ten years ago to $11 billion this year) and that should translate into more affordable childcare and with greater levels of access to childcare.
In particular, this is going to be targeted at the lowest earners making entry into the workforce as painless as possible. And if you are training or studying to improve your skills too, you should get the maximum level of financial support for childcare.
They estimate that this will make 250,000 Australian families around $2,250 a year better off.
Improved Parental Leave
Parental leave makes it much easier for working parents to care for children while they work. Government parental leave will now extend to 20 weeks of leave (which is fully flexible and can be shared between parents) and single parents get 2 more weeks on top of that.
You can also use employer’s parental leave in addition to the government leave.
Most of all the “work test rules” have been broadened considerably ensuring that more women than ever will qualify for paid parental leave.
Cash For Women’s Safety
There’s an additional $1.3 billion being spent in this budget to prevent violence against women and children.
The investment focuses on prevention (because stopping violence before it begins is the best outcome), then early intervention, response and recovery.
They will also be implementing more of the recommendations of the Respect@Work Agenda (43 have already been fully implemented and/or funded) and the expectation is to get to all 55 soon.
There will also be the launch of an e-safety commissioner and a telephone service for women and children to call if they are being abused online.
When women are safer, they can focus on the work that they do.
Women’s Health Focus For Parents
Over $50 million is to be invested in supporting new parents and their mental health. This will include subsidised storage for those women in the workforce seeking to delay parenthood by storing their eggs, sperm or embryos for IVF at a later date.
There will also be a launch of twenty new mental health and wellbeing perinatal services to cover every state and territory.
Working is easier when you have support that you can rely on.
The Gender Equality Fund
There will also be, as part of the 2030 UN Agenda for women, a substantial contribution from Australia to a Gender Equality Fund.
This aims to ensure that women working in the overseas development program see increased levels of opportunity and success.
There will be a focus on encouraging women to take up leadership positions and to contribute to economic growth.
Final Thoughts On Policy Changes For Women’s Success
As Sonia says, this is not groundbreaking stuff but a welcome move forward with the agenda to ensure that women can participate on an equal playing field in the world of work.
Australia has been making solid progress over the last few years and over 62% of the workforce now consists of women and the gender pay gap is narrowing (though still substantial at 13.8%) and these policy changes should see the country heading in the right direction for further improvement.