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Cheat Sheet: What this year’s Federal Budget means for Australian women

WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT

Making sense of Australia’s 2022 budget announcements.

Last night marked Australia’s Big Budget Bonanza (doesn’t that make it sound fun?) and while the cost of living proved to be the expected star of the show, the Morrison Government also announced “a $2.1 billion Budget package of targeted measures to further support Australian women and girls.”

So what’s in it for us? Great question. As the first phase of the government’s National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022 – 2023, the Budget includes a $1.3 billion package (to be rolled out over six years) for “more frontline services, emergency accommodation, and support to access legal and health services for women and children in need”, according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The current National Plan (2010 – 2022) failed to fulfil all of its objectives.


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After last year’s political spotlight shone on the stories of Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame, it makes sense for women’s safety to take a front seat (and it should’ve happened earlier, clearly). Of that $1.3 billion, $222.6 million will be invested in prevention initiatives, like the national organisation Our Watch and the consent campaign Stop it at the Start. 

Family violence prevention initiatives

An additional $328.2 million will go towards early intervention programs, including $127.8 million for trauma-informed counselling services supporting victims (including children). The investment will also extend to a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, as led by the Aboriginal and Torres Advisory Council.

Parental leave

Additionally, instead of two weeks of ‘Dad and Partner Pay’ and 18 weeks of ‘Parental Leave Pay’, parents will now be able to combine the two and split the time however they choose. According to the budget, this will in turn discourage “policy settings defined by ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ carers,” hopefully preventing women from ‘sacrificing’ their careers for children.

Women’s health

Women’s health initiatives will receive another welcome cut of the budget, with the breast cancer drug Trodelvy becoming subsidised from May 1. Without a subsidy, previous patients reportedly paid over $80,000 per treatment. $58.3 million will also go towards the previously neglected diagnosis, treatment and management of endometriosis.

For those suffering from eating disorders (approximated 4 per cent of the population), an evidence-based program will be established to identify new models of care. Although despite our supposed wins, many are disappointed in the missed opportunity to improve the position of women going into retirement.

Superannuation and retirement

“Although the Government has extended the length of paid parental leave by two weeks in this Budget, it’s disappointing this was not accompanied by an announcement it would include super,” said the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) CEO, Eva Scheerlinck. “For every dollar a man earns, a woman earns 67 cents on average, and women have 40 per cent less superannuation on retirement and live longer.”

Read more about the 2022 budget here.

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