Everyone who is concerned about Australia’s economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 was glued to the presentation of the Federal Budget documents on May 11th - especially women. While the budget highlights gains for women, will it actually deliver? As a document that reflects true priorities and values, the National Foundation for Australian Women (@NFAWomen) is busy dissecting and analysing the budget to bring to light how effective this budget will be in promoting gender equality. Sally Moyle (@SallyMoyle) provides insight into this important process.

Every year, a small group of gender equality advocates pays close attention to the second Tuesday in May. Federal Budget day. Where we, as a nation, spend the money we pay in taxes.

Governments are clear that this is a statement of priorities. They can’t, of course, fund everything they would like to, so they have to make difficult decisions. And in those decisions, we find out what our Government cares about.

Do women and men benefit equally? Is the government choosing to close gender equality gaps, or is it making things worse? Are they entrenching the traditional gender norms that hold us back as individuals, families, as a nation; or are they thinking outside of that age-old and battered box?

We have known about the importance of government spending decisions for gender equality for decades. Australia was the first nation globally to introduce a form of gender responsive budgeting. In 1984, when Australia introduced the world’s first Sex Discrimination Act, we also introduced the world’s first Women’s Budget Statement.

Since then, Australia has wavered in its willingness to consider how its fiscal (spending and taxing) decisions affect women and men differently and what impacts they might have on gender equality. At times the Women’s Budget Statement was no more than a postcard outlining the main spending decisions that might benefit more women. And then in 2014 the Government abandoned the Women’s Budget Statement altogether.

So in that year, the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) began our Gender Lens on the Budget report. Last year, 35 authors volunteered their time and expertise to comb through the Budget Papers to assess the ability of each program, and federal Government spending as a whole, to support progress towards equality between women and men. Which men, which women, and how many of each overall, will individual tax and spending decisions affect? Who benefits and who is left out?

We know that, just because a Budget measure is not explicitly gendered, it may well, and likely will, have a different impact on women and men, and even more so on particular groups of women and men, because of where they sit in the economy and society.

Whether we like it or not, tax deductions for high income earners will inevitably benefit men more than women, and white men more than Indigenous men, because white men earn much more than women and people of colour. It is easy to say, as then Treasurer Joe Hockey did several years ago, that the solution is to get a well-paid job, but this overlooks the systemic and structural impediments and discrimination faced by women and people of colour in our workforce. It overlooks that fact that women know they will be expected to bear the load of unpaid and caring work in their families, and so they make decisions early in in life that will enable them to meet all these expectations, limiting their dreams, ambitions and too often their career trajectories. It overlooks the gender segregation in our workforce and the discrimination that means women’s work is undervalued compared to men’s. All of these are structural and systemic impediments to women or people of colour ‘just getting a well-paid job’ so they can benefit from high income tax breaks.

Yes, the Government’s Low and Middle Income Tax Offsets have delivered up to $1080 a year to low and middle income earners. However, these were a temporary measure designed to end this Financial Year. The high-income tax reductions are permanent. More money will flow from government coffers into men’s pockets over time.

This year, there is greater scrutiny than ever on the Coalition’s valuing of women. Photo credit: Michael Joyce.

The Gender Lens report will assess whether this is fair on its face and in the overall Budget context. This year, after a less-than-stellar start to the year for the Federal Government when it comes to gender equality, concern for women is front-and-centre in how the budget is presented. Our cadre of volunteer experts (note: more unpaid work for women!) are busy analysing the budget documents and will publish the findings on May 24th – they will be available here.

We will draw on endless reams of research that demonstrate the economic and business case for the Government investing in gender equality. We will point to the research the National Foundation for Australian Women itself commissioned last year that demonstrates, if the Government better supported families to manage their caring responsibilities, the economy would benefit by an extra 1.6 per cent of GDP by 2030. The investment would pay for itself in increased tax revenue.

Over the years, our report cards have been mixed but generally disappointing. It would be far preferable if the Government produced gender responsive Budgets itself. It should assess every spending proposal for its ability to close gender gaps and advance equality. And it should have an overall strategy for real and sustained progress towards equality. This needs to supersede the Government’s fear that men may lose their privileged position.

We would dearly love to see the Government commit to this approach, because we know it would benefit women, men and the whole society and economy.

The time is overdue to deliver real, sustained, well-financed priority to addressing inequality. Without meaningful cultural and systemic change to address gender inequality, Australia will not regain its proud record and will be less fair, less equal, less clever and less well positioned to respond to the challenges of the 21st Century.

And so, while you are reading this, our dedicated group of gender equality advocates responsible for authoring the Gender Lens on the Budget report for the 2021-22 Budget, are dissecting and analysing every aspect of the budget, to assess how policies and spending will differentially impact on women compared to men. Will it deliver progress towards gender equality as promised, or will we again be disappointed, angry and more determined than ever to see real change?

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.

Posted by @SusanMaury

Beyond the rhetoric: What will the Federal Budget really mean for gender equality?