{"id":51344,"date":"2021-02-24T04:06:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T04:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.broadagenda.com.au\/?p=9036"},"modified":"2021-02-24T04:06:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T04:06:15","slug":"ignored-given-scraps-office-for-women-demeaned-by-gov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/24\/ignored-given-scraps-office-for-women-demeaned-by-gov\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignored & given scraps: Office for Women demeaned by Gov"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a deathly silence from the Office for Women, PM&C<\/a> of late. In fact, not ‘of late’, but of long! This Office, originally established under Gough Whitlam to ensure the operations of government took women’s diverse needs, challenges and economic security into account – has been rendered next to useless.<\/em><\/p>\n

As the following article published in Crikey today outlines, under the stewardship of a muted and mostly absent Minister for Women, Sen Marise Payne, along with Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, and Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, the Office for Women has not only become a toothless paper tiger, it appears to have become a blind, deaf and mute one as well. It has been “ignored”, “denied access to information”, refused any input to budget modelling or decision making processes, and stripped of any “structural power”. Past staff who’ve walked out the door are both heartbroken and scathing of the Office’s impotency. As for current staff, well, as journalist Amber Schultz<\/a> reports below, it would appear they “spend a lot of time just focused on their own survival.”\u00a0 <\/em>What a dismal state of affairs for the 51 percent of Australia’s population who were ignored in the 2020 federal budget. (<\/em>This article by Amber Schultz has been re-printed with kind permission from Crikey<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ignored and given scraps: Office for Women demeaned by Morrison government<\/h3>\n

It is given no say, has meagre funding and few staff. Just another example of the regard in which women are held by the government.<\/p>\n

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet\u2019s Office for Women is supposed to \u201cdeliver policies and programs to advance gender equality and improve the lives of Australian women\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big job. Yet it has just a handful of staff, offers meagre grants, and is rarely consulted about topics within its jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

The office hasn\u2019t responded to Australia\u2019s landmark report on workplace sexual violence, and has yet to comment on the multiple allegations of rape and assault in Parliament House.<\/p>\n

Spoken over and not consulted <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Office for Women was not consulted about plans to allow Australians early access to superannuation \u2014 a plan which raised concerns about\u00a0widening the gender super gap<\/a>\u00a0and the potential for domestic or family violence victims to be\u00a0financially abused<\/a> by their partner.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t consulted about\u00a0JobSeeker and JobKeeper<\/a>. It had minor input on\u00a0early education and care <\/a>at the beginning of the pandemic \u2014 but its input was ignored \u2014 and wasn\u2019t consulted when free childcare was removed later in the year.<\/p>\n

The office wasn\u2019t even consulted about the\u00a0$150 million scheme<\/a>\u00a0to boost females in sport or about the latest round of tax cuts. It\u2019s not clear whether it was consulted about the closure of the Family Court or the\u00a0Respect@Work\u00a0<\/a>workplace sexual violence report, which was released in March last year.<\/p>\n

In the report, sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins called for her office to have new powers to investigate harassment claims in the workplace. Attorney-General Christian Porter, who has been accused of repeatedly making\u00a0offensive and sexist comments<\/a>, is in charge of responding to the report and has yet to do so.<\/p>\n

The office\u2019s lack of input might explain why the latest budget\u00a0threw women under the bus<\/a>, with very little allocated to benefiting women. The budget instead\u00a0stimulates male-dominated<\/a> jobs and industries.<\/p>\n

The only grant available through the office currently is under the Women\u2019s Leadership and Development Program. $4.9 million is available for women\u2019s alliance groups, which can receive a maximum of $820,898 across two years.<\/p>\n

The role of the office and its lack of transparency around staffing levels (which were revealed nearly two months after the question was posed) has routinely been scrutinised in question time.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the National Foundation for Australian Women told\u00a0Crikey\u00a0<\/em>the office has been silent on key issues including pay equity, women\u2019s participation in superannuation and industrial relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would expect the office to be taking a stand \u2026 there is very little evidence that it\u2019s being an advocate [for women].\u201d<\/p>\n

Under-resourced and disempowered <\/strong><\/p>\n

Trish Bergin was the first assistant secretary at the office between 2017 and 2019. She is now co-director of the 50\/50 by 2030 Foundation. Bergin says she left because it was an \u201cimpossible job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s under-resourced,\u201d she told\u00a0Crikey.<\/em> \u201cIt does not have any structural power. You have to scramble the whole time to try and find out what\u2019s going on [as] the office is not looped into the policy process in a systematic way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office for Women has just 39 staff \u2014 less than half it had before 2010, Bergin says.<\/p>\n

During her time working there, Bergin says she was repeatedly denied access to information such as modelling and data around tax cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe treasurer\u2019s office particularly just refuses to allow any kind of input from the Office for Women,\u201d she said, citing the government\u2019s refusal to acknowledge gender disparity.<\/p>\n

In 2019 Treasurer Josh Frydenberg triumphantly \u2014 and erroneously \u2014 said the\u00a0\u201cgender pay gap has closed\u201d<\/a>. The national gap sits at\u00a014%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bergin has called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to name Jenkins to the independent inquiry into the Parliament House workplace.<\/p>\n

A shadow of its former self <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Office for Women\u2019s glory days under the Hawke Labor government in the \u201980s, Australia became a leader in breaking down a budget in terms of gender impact.<\/p>\n

Since the mid-\u201990s, however, beginning under John Howard, the office\u2019s scope and relevance have been\u00a0cut down<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was moved to the Department of Family and Community Services (only moving back to the cabinet in\u00a02013<\/a>) and in 2014 the women\u2019s budget statement was abandoned by then-minister for women Tony Abbott.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shadow of its former self,\u201d Bergin said.<\/p>\n

Karen O\u2019Connell formerly worked at the Australian Human Rights Commission and is an expert in discrimination. She told\u00a0Crikey<\/em> many groups set up to deal with gender inequality were chronically under-resourced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat tends to happen with these parts of government is they\u2019re very easily disempowered,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is that they spend a lot of time just focused on their own survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell isn\u2019t convinced the office is well suited to respond to the allegations of parliamentary abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It should] play a part in improving and providing expertise to the government internal processes that need fixing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think in this case there\u2019s so obviously such systemic problems and sadly broad cultural problems that it\u2019s hard to believe that there\u2019s any part of the government that could truly say that they stand outside of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government has announced\u00a0four internal reviews<\/a> to look into parliament\u2019s culture and its response to Brittany Higgins\u2019 allegations.<\/p>\n

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet did not respond to\u00a0Crikey\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0requests for comment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally published in Crikey 24 Feb 2021.<\/a> It is reprinted\u00a0with kind permission. Reporter Amber Shultz<\/a> previously worked for Nine News and The Age and created student comedy talk show The Struggle. She was a Young Walkley finalist, Jacoby-Walkley scholar, and won an Ossie Our Watch award. Amber holds a Masters in International Relations and Journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The post Ignored & given scraps: Office for Women demeaned by Gov<\/a> appeared first on BroadAgenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on BroadAgenda<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a deathly silence from the Office for Women, PM&C of late. In fact, not \u2018of late\u2019, but of long! This Office, originally established under Gough Whitlam to ensure the operations of government took women\u2019s diverse needs, challenges and economic security into account \u2013 has been rendered next to useless. As the following [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post Ignored & given scraps: Office for Women demeaned by Gov<\/a> appeared first on BroadAgenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2518,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1628,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51345,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51344\/revisions\/51345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}