Women's Agenda • 15th October 2020

The 2020 budget fails women in more ways than one: its response to sexual harassment is pathetic

This week marks the 3rd anniversary of the #MeToo movement going viral in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations. If that has you in a reflective -mood — wondering how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go — it’s worth noting that buried deep in the 2020 budget papers and Women’s Economic Security Statement (WESS) is the government’s pathetic response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s sexual harassment inquiry.

Women's Agenda • 14th October 2020

Memo to the female ministers defending the 2020 Budget

Last week, the 2020 budget and the corresponding Women’s Economic Security Statement, which was released alongside the budget with a series of “targeted” measures the Morrison government claimed would help ameliorate the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women, landed with a thud.

The Saturday Paper • 26th September 2020

Shareholders push for corporate responsibility

The managing director of one of Australia’s largest and most influential investment firms says his company, Allan Gray, “didn’t take some moral high ground” in relation to AMP over sexual harassment claims made against one of its executives, Boe Pahari.

Women's Agenda • 23rd September 2020

The COVID crossroads on women’s economic security

For more than a decade, the issue of women’s economic security, or more accurately their lack thereof, has been the subject of much debate. Not so fun facts: women retire with, on average, half the super of men and women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing portion of the homeless population. Even before the pandemic, this was a crisis in need of action.

Women's Agenda • 21st September 2020

Budget 2020: Women miss out, but the “blokecovery” is well on course

Ahead of the October 6th federal budget, I’ve been reading into the trickle of pre-budget media briefings and speculation, attempting to discern if there will be anything, anything at all, for the ladies — or families.

Women's Agenda • 16th September 2020

Who'll most benefit from tax cuts? Rich men. We need gender-responsive budgeting, now

What do we want? A gender lens on the budget! When do we want it? Now! I concede that this is not a particularly sexy feminist rallying cry, but it is the feminist rallying cry we need right now. Hear me out, and then go make your sign, T-shirt, mug, social media hashtag – whatever floats your boat. But get on it, before it’s too late. A lot is at stake.

The Guardian • 15th September 2020

Women are not financially illiterate. They need more than condescending advice | Kristine Ziwica

Debate about recent and upcoming changes to superannuation, including the early release scheme and the proposed rise to the superannuation guarantee, has been running hot for a few months now. Likewise, the fact that women have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic has also been the subject of much commentary. But an issue related to both those current debates that hasn’t gotten anywhere near as much attention as it should is women’s economic security.

Women's Agenda • 10th September 2020

Yes Pandemic Parental Burnout is a thing and you’re not alone

Dr Nisha Khot, a Melbourne-based OB-GYN and the mother of two children, ages 12 and 18, says it crept up on her. When the pandemic first arrived on Australian shores in March, she thought to herself, “Our kids are older, we’ll be okay.” Then it slowly dawned on her that everything wasn’t going to be okay. As an essential worker, she struggled to keep up with the demands of her job, especially as many of her colleagues fell victim to the virus or they, likewise, struggled to meet the demands of

Women's Agenda • 26th August 2020

Why we're at risk of losing a decade or more on equal pay

Over the last few years on Equal Pay Day, the day that traditionally marks the additional days women must work from the end of the previous financial year to earn the same as men did the previous year, the Coalition government has sought to, rather awkwardly, “celebrate” Australia’s miniscule progress towards closing the gender pay gap.

Women's Agenda • 13th August 2020

Will the pandemic help or hinder an Australian “women’s wave” in politics?

In June, Chris Wallace, an associate professor at the University of Canberra’s 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, wrote a piece for The Conversation in which she claimed that Morrison’s decision to end free child care and single out the overwhelmingly female child-care workforce for the early end of Job Keeper “should have women storming for preselection across Australia’s political spectrum”.

The Age • 13th August 2020

Women have gone from holding ground to losing ground

At the start of the year, I was commissioned by this masthead to write a piece looking ahead to the key issues likely to be on the "gender agenda" in 2020. I dutifully asked some of the smartest, most dogged gender equality advocates I know, including Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins and the national feminist icon Anne Summers, for their predictions.

Women's Agenda • 29th July 2020

Our Minister for Women is missing on how the COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately impacting women

I live in Melbourne, so it’s been back to lockdown (and home-schooling my two primary-school-aged children). And as I’ve had a bit of time on my hands – in keeping with my tendency to forensically examine the Government’s track-record on all things gender equality — I decided to take a close look at what the Hon. Marise Payne, Australia’s Minister for Women, has had to say about the well-documented, disproportionate social and economic impact of COVID-19 on women.

Women's Agenda • 26th July 2020

Josh Frydenberg wants a COVID childbirth boom. Time to give him 'the talk' on where babies come from

Women of Australia, I know you’re all super busy with, among other things, remote learning, sorting out the additional unpaid care and domestic work associated with COVID-19, and making home-made face masks. But I need to interrupt your COVID day with an urgent request: we also need to “school” our nation’s Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. It has recently come to my attention that he doesn’t know where babies come from. It’s time to have “the talk”.

Women's Agenda • 9th July 2020

We're getting a 'bloke-covery' response to a 'she-cession': How will women respond at the ballot box?

The Coalition Government’s response to the economic fallout of COVID-19 – namely its focus on a “blokecovery” to what is, by all accounts, a “she-cession” — has led some to speculate that the prioritisation of men and male-dominated industries in stimulus measures will not only prove bad economic and social policy, as numerous economists have already warned, but bad politics. Women voters might punish the Coalition at the next Federal election.

Women's Agenda • 29th June 2020

We've had the inquiry. Now we have the Heydon allegations. So what next for women and sexual harassment?

Since the revelations about former High Court justice Dyson Heydon’s alleged serial sexual predation broke in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Monday, there’s been much talk about what next for the reckoning we need on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. What happened to Australia’s original #MeToo movement, which arrived on these shores shortly after the Harvey Weinstein allegations broke in the New York Times and the hashtag went viral, including here in Australia?

Women's Agenda • 25th June 2020

Fears of a “Mum-cession”: experts warn of pandemic motherhood penalty

As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on our collective health and the health of the economy, plunging Australia into its first recession in 29 years (something economists have more aptly called a “she-cession” due to the over-representation of women amongst job losses), experts are now warning of a “pandemic motherhood penalty” that could have long lasting consequences for mothers.

Women's Agenda • 12th June 2020

Donald Trump and his dangerous “humiliated fury” following the #BunkerBoy incident

As we all well know, US President Donald Trump took a not so leisurely Monday morning stroll from the White House across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church, which was damaged by fire the night before. Trump held up a Bible for a photo op that has since been described as a “defining moment” of his presidency.

Women's Agenda • 10th June 2020

Why do we have a “she-cession” but a “bloke-covery”?

It’s official. We have a “she-cession” on our hands, but the Coalition Government is planning a “blokey”, construction led recovery whilst throwing the female-dominated early childhood education sector, and the working mums who depend on them, under the bus. Yes, Prime Minister, we do need a shovel all right, but not for the purposes I suspect you had in mind.

Women's Agenda • 28th May 2020

A female CEO gives up work because her husband can't cope at home. Who or what's the blame?

Are men shit? In the words of Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, “Shit men don’t explain everything or nothing.” Okay, maybe she didn’t say that, but I like to think she would have — if asked.

Women's Agenda • 13th May 2020

The chore wars were about to go nuclear – and then a pandemic hit

As an observer, campaigner and writer on all things “domestic democracy” (or lack thereof), I have long predicted that the so-called “chore wars”, the endless battle within heterosexual couples with children about who does the unpaid domestic and care work, were about to go nuclear, culminating in a “new reckoning” on the home-front.