Following the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday night, the 77-year-old posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, taking credit for the pop star’s enormous success over the years.

In his post, Trump refers to the Music Modernisation Act that was passed under his watch as US president, legislation that helped artists earn royalties and licensing fees easier on music streaming services.

“I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists,” Trump wrote.

“Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will.”

Swift hasn’t officially endorsed a presidential candidate yet for this year’s election, however she did publicly announce her support for President Joe Biden in 2020.

“There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money,” Trump continued in his post.

“Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”

Previously, Swift was known for keeping her politics to herself and very rarely demonstrated any political leaning in her art and in her presence in the public eye.

However, in the 2018 midterm election, Swift endorsed Democrat Senator Phil Bredesen and urged her fans to vote the same.

Her 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana includes footage of moments before she made the endorsement in a post on Instagram. While Swift’s father was concerned about security risks and potentially damaging headlines outing her opposition to Trump, she said it was something she felt she needed to do, regretting not speaking out sooner.

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A post shared by Loni Love (@comiclonilove)

Swift was particularly opposed to Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn – who ran against Democrat Senator Bredesen and ultimately won – based on her extreme right-wing views against women and the LGBTQIA+ community.

“She votes against fair pay for women. She votes against reauthorisation of the violence against women act, which is just basically protecting us from domestic abuse and stalking,” Swift said in the footage on Miss Americana.

“She thinks that if you’re a gay couple or even if you look like a gay couple you should be allowed to be kicked out of a restaurant.

“I can’t see another commercial [with] her disguising these policies behind the words ‘Tennessee Christian values. Those aren’t Tennessee Christian values’. I live in Tennessee. I am Christian. That’s not what we stand for.”

Conspiracy theories

Trump’s comments on Taylor Swift comes off the back of far-right pundits accusing the pop star of being a “Pentagon asset” who will “rig” the upcoming presidential election in November in favour of the Democrat party.

Some referred to Swift as an “election interference psyop” who will turn Swifities into Democrat voters. Others have accused Swift of being a puppet for the NFL and Democrats, referencing her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, saying she will also rig the Super Bowl match.

While Swift has not addressed the accusations, President Joe Biden has not shied away from them, and instead, his social media team has taken the mickey out of it.

Just like we drew it up. pic.twitter.com/9NBvc5nVZE

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 12, 2024

In an unanticipated move, Biden also created a TikTok account on Sunday night – presumably to appeal to younger voters – that already has nearly 100,000 followers.

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But in certain so-called meritocracies across business and politics, accountability means nothing when it comes to leadership. 

Indeed, an ability to lie, deny, dodge reality and blame someone else for your “regrets” can be a much greater path to the top.

And there are few greater examples of this than former prime minister Scott Morrison. 

The ABC’s final installment of Nemesis showed this over and over again, as Morrison was asked to answer some of the moments that ultimately came to define his leadership record. 

Unfortunately for Morrison, as was the fate of his predecessors Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott, the full series also depicted the role of ego, enemies and retributive justice in ‘meritocracies’ and how they can bring leaders down, even at the expense of the party.

Underpinning it all was the Coalition’s lack of women in power and failure to do anything about it. From former PM Tony Abbott failing to include more than one woman in his Cabinet, to Julie Bishop receiving just eleven votes out of the 85 member party room during her bid for party leadership, despite being the most qualified and experienced among them. And finally, Morrison’s “clumsy” and “regretful” approach to women.

Morrison’s finger-pointing started early during the episode dedicated to his government, with him making subtle suggestions about his staff being “clunky” and making mistakes about informing people of his whereabouts in the scandal that broke when he took a holiday to Hawaii during the bushfire crisis.

“As prime minister, you don’t blame your staff. Some of those issues were clunky in their handling. But people don’t get everything right. At the end of the day I’m responsible for all of that.” 

He continued to downplay his bungled handling on the bushfires, the vaccine rollout, his relationship with other premiers, Brittany Higgins, Christine Holgate, France and much more.

There were the comments he made during a press conference when Morrison said that he’d spoken to his wife about Brittany Higgins, and Jenny and had clarified things to him with the comment, “what would you want to happen if it were our girls?” 

He said his key “regret” was bringing Jenny into it. “I should never have disclosed what Jenny and I talk about,” he said. 

Asked about the infamous line suggesting women protesting outside parliament should be grateful not to be “met with bullets”, Morrison said his response was “clumsy” and that “Jenny would agree”. He laughed it off, comparing himself to being, “like most suburban dads”. 

There was the PM’s treatment of former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate, who was humiliated and effectively fired on the floor of parliament. Even Barnaby Joyce could see the issue here, “you don’t go into a public forum and berate another person,” he said. 

But Morrison, again, had little time to reflect on the moment or extensively reconsider his actions. Instead, he said he probably should have drunk some water before speaking.

There was Morrison’s declaration that the vaccine rollout was “not a race”, sparking fury from many Australians and especially health professionals.

Once again, Morrison had “regrets” over his words, but he was also quick to point the finger – noting that former health secretary Brendan Murphy “had been using this phrase quite regularly in our briefing.” 

There was, more generally, Morrison’s overall record on women, which many would argue played a huge factor in the Coalition being decimated at the last election. 

Morrison denied he had a problem with women and his “professional record of where I’ve worked and how I’ve worked for my entire life, I don’t think indicates that at all.” 

Many women in his government disagreed, including former MP Julia Banks, who said he “has a really weak, if no regard, particularly for working women with children.” 

The PM was “brutal” and “disrespectful”, former Queensland (Labor) Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, reflecting on a particularly “threatening” phone call in September 2020.

Finally, there was the revelation of Morrison’s many secret ministries that came out three months after the Coalition lost the 2022 election. Treasurer Frydenberg – whom Morrison said had shared many nights playing pool and watching Yes Minister with at the lodge during lockdowns – said he was extremely disappointed and thought it was an example of “extreme overreach.” Frydenberg said the matter impacted their relationship and “still does to this day”. 

But Morrison saw things differently. He said he apologised to the former Treasurer and they are “as good a friends as you could hope for”. 

Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said that she’d hate for people to look at the nine years the Coalition spent in government and think it “was all about leadership, rivalry, revenge, factional warfare, Liberals versus National Party turf wars.” 

But it’s hard to think of anything else. How much was actually achieved? As for what was achieved, how much of it was done to appease individuals and make good on alliances? 

Would things have been different if those nine years if more women had been included in this Liberal party’s idea of a meritocracy?

Morrison claims he listened to women. But as former minister Karen Andrews said, it’s not clear which, if any women, he did listen to — other than his wife.

“If Scott Morrison had included more women, or any women, in his inner circle, I believe that wouldn’t affected every single decision that was made,” she said.  

Let that be a lesson for any “meritocracy” that still fails to include women.

Pictured above: Julie Bishop, former Foreign Affairs minister and Deputy Prime Minister, in 2014. She received just 11 votes during a 2018 leadership ballot triggered by current Opposition leader Peter Dutton, one of those votes being her own. Bishop announced her resignation from politics in 2019. She did not appear in any part of the Nemesis docuseries.

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The anniversary comes a week after a recent major review of the Closing the Gap agreement where the Productivity Commission warned that policies meant to improve life for First Nations people will fail without fundamental government changes. 

The government is scheduled to table their annual report today on the progress of the policies and programs tied to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. This report will analyse progress from 2023. The government will also present the next Closing the Gap Implementation plan to outline the new actions they’re taking to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. 

“The entrenched inequality experienced by many Indigenous Australians is completely unacceptable,” said Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney. “And unfortunately, actions so far have not led to the change needed.”

“The first Productivity Commission Review on the National Agreement on Closing the Gap makes it clear that all governments need to do better– states, territories and the Commonwealth,” she said. “We’ll work with the Coalition of Peace and across governments to consider the findings of the report.”

Marking today’s significant anniversary, Burney met with members of the Stolen Generations and their families in Canberra.

Post by @lindaburneymp

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The national program amplifying the voices of the Stolen Generation– The Healing Foundation– has said that as the government’s annual progress report on Closing the Gap policies is handed down today, “we must recognise that Stolen Generations survivors are a ‘gap within the gap’, a statistical indicator of truth not reconciled.”

As Stolen Generations survivors age, urgency grows,” the Foundation said in a statement. 

“We must ensure consistent and adequate compensation is seen by survivors in their lifetime. And with many survivors sadly passing away, there is no time to waste.”

“We invite Australians to stand alongside Stolen Generations survivors as we renew our call for the counting of actions, not anniversaries.”

Labor announces $707m job program for Indigenous Australians

The Albanese Government has also announced it will invest $707 million in a new Remote Jobs program that will create 3,000 jobs over the next three years.  

This new program is meant to replace the widely-criticised Community Development Program (CDP). 

Speaking to these developments, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy told the ABC that the CDP is currently the sole employment opportunity for most First Nations people in remote areas, but over the last 5-10 years, it’s had “some really serious problems”.

“When we came to government, we said we needed to look at the CDP program and abolish it because we recognised it didn’t have superannuation, it didn’t have holiday leave– it didn’t have all the entitlements that come with supporting workers.”

“So this is our first step,” she says, adding that the Prime Minister’s announcement today is “significant” as they embark on the future of this Remote Job program. 

The government says the program will start in the second half of this year, and will be “grounded in self determination”, allowing communities to decide what jobs are created, such as in community services and the care sector, hospitality and tourism, horticulture and retail.

The post Government releases annual Closing the Gap report on anniversary of national apology appeared first on Women's Agenda.

On Monday, the former defence minister published a statement on her Facebook page declaring she would “not be nominating as a candidate for another term as a Liberal Senator for Western Australia.”

“For forty years I have proudly served my nation in the Army, in the Liberal Party, in defence industry, in Parliament and in Government,” she explained. “In my career after the Senate, I will continue to serve, but in new ways.”

Reynolds was elected to the Senate for Western Australia in 2014, and re-elected in 2016 and 2019. Prior to that, she’d spent more than a decade holding vice-president and treasury positions at various local WA Liberal Party divisions. 

Her first cabinet role came in mid-2019, serving under the Morrison government as Minister for Defence Industry. Over the next several years, she would serve in other portfolios, including Minister for Emergency Management, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Defence and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. 

In her ‘Statement on Preselection’ published yesterday, Reynolds described her years serving in cabinet as “some of the most challenging times in our Nation’s recent history.”

She noted that being preselected and elected to the Senate was “a great honour and a privilege few Australians are afforded.”

“This is my tenth year in the Senate and my passion and commitment to my State and to my Nation remains as strong as ever.”

She went on to say it was “rare” for her to be in a position “to choose the time and circumstances of your departure,” and that her decision to leave politics was made “after considerable reflection of what is behind me and the opportunities that are now ahead of me.”

“Just as the health of our democracy can never be taken for granted, neither can the health of political parties – both must be constantly renewed and strengthened. I joined the Liberal Party over 35 years ago and my respect for, and belief in, the principles and values it was established on have only deepened over time.”

Addressing her party directly, she said that she “owe[s] the Liberal Party so much” and that she was “very grateful for the lifelong friendships I have made in the Party and for the overwhelming support I continue to receive from WA Liberal Party members and volunteers who have helped me over the last decade.”

In 2021, when she was Defence Minister, Reynolds faced intense scrutiny after former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins alleged she was sexually assaulted by then colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Reynolds’ ministerial office. Higgins was working as a media advisor to Senator Reynolds at the time. When she told Reynolds about the rape, Reynolds was horrified, according to Higgins, and asked her if she intended to go to the police.

“She said, ‘If you choose to go to the police we will support you in that process, but we just need to know ahead of time. We need to know now’,” Higgins told news.com.au.

Lehrmann has continued to deny the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the alleged rape of Higgins.

In 2021, Reynolds publicly apologised to Higgins for calling her “a lying cow” in February of that year and agreed to cover the legal costs.

“[I] did not mean it in the sense it may have been understood,” she wrote in a statement posted on her socials. “Given that the comment was made public, which I never intended, I also want to retract it and unreservedly apologise to Brittany Higgins and acknowledge the hurt and distress it caused to her.” 

Reynolds also promised to make a donation to a sexual assault charity as part of a confidential settlement with her. 

A criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann on one charge of sexual assault in 2022 was derailed in the ACT Supreme Court following juror misconduct. A second trial was aborted by prosecutors after concerns were raised for Higgins’ mental health.

In late 2022, lawyers for Higgins were reported to be preparing to bring a civil claim against Reynolds and former Attorney-General Michaelia Cash for sexual harassment, discrimination, disability discrimination, negligence and victimisation.

In December, Higgins reached a settlement with the Commonwealth, with “the parties [agreeing] that the terms of the settlement are confidential.” 

In January last year, Reynolds launched a defamation case against Higgins and her fiance, David Sharaz, over tweets her lawyers said caused damage that were “inaccurate and professionally damaging” and that “cannot be underestimated.”

Months later, Reynolds sent a defamation concerns notice to Tanya Plibersek following an interview on Sunrise where Plibersek claimed that the crime to which Higgins was subject to “had been inappropriately investigated, even covered up by her employers.”

Reynolds told Plibersek she could “make amends” and avoid legal action by issuing a signed apology, withdrawing her comments, paying Reynolds’ legal costs and providing an “appropriate sum to compensate my client for the damage caused by the publication” within 28 days.

Reynolds’ statement yesterday did not mention anything pertaining to Higgins or these cases. She did however insist that she would “keep working” with her party to “diversify and strengthen” it. 

“Having achieved more than I set out to when I entered the Senate, there is no perfect time to leave politics, but this is the right time for me and for the WA Liberal Party to provide my successor with the same opportunities it has given me,” she concluded. 

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Simon Birmingham applauded Reynolds’ “distinguished career” in both parliament and the military. 

“From her service in the Australian Army to her tenure as a Liberal Senator for Western Australia, Linda has been a steadfast champion for our nation’s defence, national security, and the advancement of Australia,” he said in a statement.

“Linda’s strength, courage and dignity have been remarked upon by many. I have no doubt that in the years ahead Linda will continue to unwaveringly serve her community and our nation.”

Liberal MP Melissa Price commented on Reynolds’ Facebook post, saying, “Thank you for your service to the party and Senate Linda, although I have no doubt that you will find other avenues to contribute to our great nation. My friend, you will be missed.”

Reynolds will remain in the Senate until her term ends in June 2025.

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Footage published on Friday by the Daily Mail show Joyce, inexplicably sprawled on the ground next to a planter box in popular Canberra precinct (well known for its plentiful bars and pubs), Braddon. Joyce is filmed having a phone conversation with his wife Vikki Campion while uttering the words: “Dead f**cking c*nt”.

Joyce has admitted to drinking prior to the incident, suggesting that a cocktail of a “prescription drug” mixed with booze led to “certain things” happening.

This morning, Joyce told Seven’s Sunrise that “obviously I made a big mistake” and “there’s no excuse for it” but “there is a reason”.

“It was a very eventful walk home, wasn’t it,” he said.

“I should’ve followed … I’m on a prescription drug, and they say certain things may happen to you if you drink, and they were absolutely 100 per cent right. They did.”

Mr Joyce said over the weekend that the incident was “very embarrassing” and happened when he was walking back to his accommodation after parliament had risen late at 10pm.

“While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over,” he told the ABC in a statement.

What our reaction to this story says about us

On Saturday morning, my partner and I were talking (and laughing…a lot) about the footage over breakfast. Our response, like much of the nation boiled down to this: “Standard Barnaby”.

Memes circulated across social media, and some quick-thinking Canberran humorously chalked an outline of Joyce’s body next to the planter box where the incident took place. I shared it on our Women’s Agenda group Slack channel with three laughing emojis.

But this morning, as I was thinking more deeply about the situation, I was left with a profound sense of shame. Because I know, in my heart of hearts, that if a female parliamentarian were to act in the same way, my response wouldn’t be to laugh it off and deem it standard practice.

We have always given social and cultural licence to male politicians acting like they live in a frat house.

We lauded former Labor PM Bob Hawke’s “world record” allegedly achieved at Oxford University for a beer scull of a yard of ale in 11 seconds. The admiration 40 years on is still so strong that Hawke has a brewing company and multiple beers named in his honour.

When Tony Abbott missed a series of key parliamentary votes in 2009 because he was drunk and passed out on a couch, we shrugged it off. When he broke a table in his office after his election loss, we did the same.

When Kevin Rudd’s trip to a New York strip club was reported, voters loved it.

We let male politicians off the hook for what we deem as “laddish” antics, when really what we’re staring down the barrel of is a total disregard for their privileged and highly public positions as well as their duty to represent the interests of voters.

And Joyce has always been given greater leeway. In 2018, Jacqueline Maley wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald that a woman would not be afforded the “level of personal complexity” that Joyce is. We observe his regular transgressions and rather than question or condemn them, we relegate them to the wild world of Barnaby Joyce. It’s good to have a colourful character in parliament.

The prime minister’s response to Joyce’s latest misdemeanour is telling. Albanese firstly said the incident was a matter for the Nationals party, and avoided making a comment when asked about it during a radio interview on Friday.

When accused of sexism on the matter, Albanese then said Mr Joyce should explain himself.

But the truth is that Albanese wouldn’t have wanted to take an emphatic stance against Joyce’s conduct lest Australian voters accuse him of being a party pooper. No one likes a Barnaby buzz kill.

Yet, when Lidia Thorpe was filmed outside a strip club in Melbourne yelling explosively at a group of men (allegedly about Indigenous affairs), Albanese was swift and sharp in his condemnation. He described her behaviour as “clearly unacceptable” and urged her to “get some support”.

In 2021, Nationals Senator Sam McMahon lost her preselection race just days after accusations reared that she had been drunk in the parliament – which she denied and blamed instead on hypertension.

My point with this is not to condone the the abuse of alcohol by one group and not another, but to show how palpable the double standard is between men and women in politics. And how this double standard infiltrates and influences all of us.

Even me.

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Middleton has over 30 years experience covering federal politics as a reporter, analyst and commentator.

For the past eight years, she’s been chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper. Prior to that, Middleton was chief political correspondent for SBS and political editor for The West Australian. 

She’s also a regular panellist on ABC Insiders, a commentator on Australian politics for a range of domestic and international outlets and has written two books– a biography of Anthony Albanese; “Telling it Straight” and “An Unwinnable War” about Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan. 

Middleton says she’s “thrilled to be joining Guardian Australia”. 

“It’s already a big year in politics, and I look forward to working with the great team in Canberra to try to make sense of it all,” she says, as she’ll be joining the Canberra office to oversee Guardian Australia’s political coverage.

Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor says she’s “delighted” that Middleton will be joining the team, noting the “decades of experience, judgement, a significant record of news breaking and excellent analytical skills” that she’ll bring to the publication.

Middleton’s appointment follows the resignation of the former political editor at Guardian Australia, Katharine Murphy, roughly two weeks ago. 

A respected Australian journalist with nearly 30 years in the field, Murphy announced on social media that she was resigning to work in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office. Having worked at Guardian Australia since the British media outlet extended to Australia in 2013, she, and the publication’s editor, Lenore Taylor, were key in the establishment of the independent media organisation in Australia.

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When Anthony Albanese is asked what his government’s Indigenous affairs policy is after the referendum’s failure, his response boils down to: watch this space.

On Tuesday the government will present its latest implementation plan for Closing the Gap, when it brings down its annual report on the progress (or lack of) towards the multiple targets.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney says Tuesday’s statement will “commit to new actions that focus on making a practical difference”.

Albanese told the ABC this week: “The priority [is] very much on employment. How do we take the [Community Development Program] – which is essentially a work-for-the-dole program – and make it real, so it creates real jobs with real skills for Indigenous Australians?”

History and evidence tell us incrementalism is not enough to make a big difference to the parlous condition of Aboriginal people in remote Australia. Equally, ambitions to transform how decisions are made and delivered have so far proved beyond governments.

This week’s blunt report from the Productivity Commission on the 2020 National Agreement on Closing the Gap told governments (federal, state and territory) real progress requires a massive change of ways and mindsets.

The agreement, dating from Scott Morrison’s time, is centred on power sharing and partnerships. But the review’s “overarching finding” is that there’s been “no systematic approach to determining what strategies need to be implemented to disrupt business-as-usual of governments”.

The commission heard from Indigenous people that barriers to reform included “the lack of power sharing needed for joint decision-making and the failure of governments to acknowledge and act on the reality that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people know what is best for their communities.”

“Unless governments address the power imbalance in their systems, policies and ways of working, the Agreement risks becoming another broken promise to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” the report says.

According to the review, the commitment to shared decision-making is rarely achieved; government policy doesn’t reflect the value of the Indigenous community-controlled sector; the required transformations of government organisations have barely begun; governments are not enabling Indigenous people to own their own data; and there are issues around accountability.

Deirdre Howard-Wagner, director of research at the Australian National University’s Centre for Indigenous Policy Research, says the commission’s final report is stronger than last year’s (already forthright) draft report.

For example, it says the agreement “needs to be changed to recognise self-determination as the ultimate goal”. It is also “very clear on the desirable path forward” on data governance, shared decision-making and having an independent mechanism to oversee the implementation of the agreement, Howard-Wagner says.

Tuesday’s statement will not provide a response to the review. Burney says it will take some time to work through it with the Coalition of Peaks – the umbrella group for Indigenous organisations – and state and territory governments.

Much has been said about the Albanese government’s caution in pushing a robust reform agenda generally. In Indigenous affairs, it has been badly burned on the Voice, the defeat of which has also produced a more negative climate, seen for instance in the political debate about treaty and truth telling. As Indigenous rights advocate Frank Brennan notes in a Eureka Street article this week, “There is a need to realise that the referendum loss now places the assimilation debate back on the national agenda.”

The Albanese government is likely to find some of the meat in the commission’s report too difficult. If it is to leave any mark on this vexed policy area, however, it must take more responsibility.

Michael Dillon is a former federal bureaucrat with extensive experience in Indigenous affairs who also served as an adviser to Labor minister Jenny Macklin. He points out that the 1967 referendum was about giving the Commonwealth power to make policy for Australia’s Indigenous people. But, he says, the 2020 agreement has, if anything, pushed responsibility back to the states and territories.

“The Commonwealth should step up and take a driving role in this agreement – and, indeed, in national Indigenous policy generally,” argues Dillon, now a visiting fellow at the ANU. Key areas for reform include education, remote housing and remote employment, he says.

Specifically on the reform of the Community Development Program, which is about both income support and getting people into jobs in remote Australia, Dillon says the government should pick out several specific areas for development.

For example, jobs could be created to assist Indigenous people in managing the enormous swathes of land they own under native title. Much of this land, in remote challenging parts of the country, can be a liability for them, because of feral animals and weeds, rather than the asset it should be. This employment would massively build on the existing successful rangers working-on-Country program, Dillon says.

Another initiative he suggests is expanding the Indigenous workforce in the community services sector, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Thirdly, in relation to remote housing, Dillon sees opportunity for creating Indigenous maintenance teams to repair houses and facilities in remote communities.

Potentially, the energy transition could present prospects for Indigenous people. Energy Minister Chris Bowen is co-developing a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. Bowen points to projects in Canada involving Indigenous people.

“A big proportion of Canada’s renewable energy is actually owned by their First Nations people, much, much bigger than in Australia. Now can we turn that ship around overnight? No, but do we have things to do? Yes. And are there some early signs of growth and encouragement? Yes. There’s been some big First Nations involvement in some big renewable energy investments, and I want to see much more of it,” Bowen told The Conversation’s Politics Podcast.

Dillon is emphatic that a very large injection of funds is needed to tackle employment and other areas of need in remote communities. “In remote Australia it’s a poly-crisis,” he says. “Every rock you pick up, there’s a scorpion.”

In his submission to the commission’s review, Dillon called for an assessment of the financial investments required to close the gap over the next decade or two. “Without such an estimate, the community at large are left in the dark, forever thinking that the incessant tinkering around the edges by governments are in fact contributing to closing the gap, whereas in fact mere tinkering contributes to and sustains the maintenance of the status quo,” he wrote.

“While the estimated cost will be substantial, so too are the costs of not closing the gap; costs that will continue to fall regressively on the most disadvantaged segments of the Australian community.”

Next week’s implementation plan will be a test of whether the Albanese government can produce policy muscle in Indigenous affairs.

On another front, Albanese has it in his power to make one desirable gesture. The governor-generalship comes up soon, and an Indigenous appointment would be appropriate and welcome. This should not be regarded as consolation for the referendum debacle. Rather, it should be seen as an overdue acknowledgement of our First Nations people.

Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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According to the government, the round saw 697 expressions of interest applications that were assessed by an Independent Assessment Committee made up of successful women entrepreneurs.

Launched by the Morrison government in 2020 and headed by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), the initiative offers grants to help women-led businesses scale into domestic and global markets. 

In order to be eligible, the startup has to be at least 51 per cent women owned and led.

The total grant funding available is $11.6 million for this round. Here’s a rundown of the startups who’ll be receiving a slice of the pie. 

Successful grant recipients, Round 3 of Boosting Female Founders Initiative

Accessi Group Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Achieving global expansion of Credit Risk Management Software Platforms

Access Intell’s project is developing a credit risk software to protect businesses from bad debts. Businesses struggle to manage debtors ledgers across disjointed systems with limited access to cost effective credit intelligence. Access Intell aggregates data from multiple sources and integrates with business systems to deliver a continuous risk assessment on every customer.

The grant funding will allow the business to scale-up, expand into global markets, become self-sufficient and create jobs and wealth for Australia.

Bestie Kitchen Pty Ltd, $249,600

Project Title: Scale Pet Supplement & Sustainable Food Range

Bestie Kitchen has commercialised intellectual property developed with CSIRO, to make a unique form of nutraceutical gummy chews for pets. This tapped into a growing market for pet supplements.

The key project activities will grow awareness and customer acquisition in Australia, secure distribution with key distributors and retail chains and penetrate key export markets in Asia.

Black Box Trading Company Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Farming tools driven by data

Black Box Trading is providing analytics to the agricultural supply chain. The project funding from this grant is key to the product vertical, as Black Box have ambitions to build livestock dashboards to help farmers, feed-lots and processors with decisions derived from their database of 3.5 million animals.

Black Box’s service is aimed at working across the beef supply chain, from the paddock to grocery shelves to aggregate data, apply machine learning, and give each stakeholder insights into their livestock.

Butter Insurance Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Scaling Butter Insurance – Revolutionising Contents Insurance

Butter Insurance is revolutionising the way young Australians access, purchase and manage insurance. The project will focus on commercialising technology enabling data-lead instant quote and bind processes, flexible single-item policies and cost-effective pricing without lock-in contracts across key distribution channels. Butter’s goal is to bridge the insurance gap for the critically underinsured Australian renters’ market and under 35’s.

Compassion Creamery Pty Ltd, $270,000

Project Title: Retail Ready Launch of Compassion Creamery’s Award-Winning Oat Creme Cheese

Compassion Creamery is looking to scale their Oat Creme Cheese operations by increasing in-house manufacturing capability in Australia, as well as build commercial capacity including increasing shelf life through formulation alterations. Compassion Creamery will allow hundreds of foodservice outlets to contribute to the expansion and acceptance of plant-based alternatives in the market; ultimately driven by the urgent need of creating a more sustainable and ethical food system.

Driveschool Enterprises Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: myDRIVESCHOOL® – social & global

myDRIVESCHOOL® is an award winning road safety program to teach people how to drive online, using simulation, gaming and artificial intelligence (AI). With BFF funding we will develop additional learning modules to address behavioural change and combine all for global markets.

Education Ontrack Pty Ltd, $462,833

Project Title: Flohh Assessment Platform Scaling and Integration

The project for Education Ontrack will focus on integrating Flohh’s online essay marking platform into School Management Systems (SMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to facilitate student data transfer and eliminate double-handling for teachers. This will also enable the business to scale internationally and enhance product performance.

Evolve Communities Pty Ltd, $443,100

Project Title: Accelerating Allyship & Reconciliation supporting Statement of the Heart

Evolve Communities is a majority Indigenous owned, female-founded organisation that teaches Practical Reconciliation and Allyship. The project will expand their unique frameworks, educational resources, multi modal delivery, accreditation and licensing programs to make their training and accreditation the gold standard for professionals and organisations in Australia.

Fonz Moto Pty Limited, $393,847

Project Title: Fonz Moto – Australian designed & made EV motorcycles market expansion

Fonz Moto designs, builds, sells and rides electrifying two-wheel motorcycles & road-scooters for the future of mobility. The project boasts a highly innovative Australian designed and manufactured product that has disrupted the Sydney market, and will continue its rapid growth both locally and overseas.

Future Anything Pty Ltd, $294,150

Project Title: Future Anything Enterprising Education Applied Learning Platform

Future Anything’s project will transform teacher-led enterprise education programs into a new student facing applied learning EdTech experience.

The project will create an innovative new standalone product that will enable Future Anything to scale rapidly and sustainably into the domestic and international market.

Gaykamangu, Liandra; $437,500

Project Title: Liandra Swim International Expansion

Liandra Swim is a premium fashion brand that focuses on sustainability whilst celebrating Indigenous Australian culture. Liandra Swim presents contemporary fashion collections showcasing hand-drawn signature prints.

The theme of each collection links the audience to a carefully considered narrative through the ancient Indigenous art of storytelling. The project will support the expansion and diversity of available swimwear inventory into the domestic and international market.

Givvable Pty Ltd, $397,600

Project Title: Givvable – helping businesses reach their sustainability targets, faster

Givvable has developed an artificial intelligence-powered software as a service (SaaS) platform for businesses to discover and track the sustainability attributes of suppliers mapped to widely-used reporting frameworks. The project will leverage existing local distribution partnerships to expand further into the domestic and international market.

Grant’d Pty Ltd, $382,122

Project Title: Grant’d 2.0 Automating and Scaling The Personalised Grant’d Experience

This project will create a subscriber based platform that automates our unique grants service, transforming Grant’d into a scalable tech based business. This investment will boost the scalability of Grant’d by eliminating our current manual processes and removing cost barriers for users through: A purpose-built Software as a Service (SaaS) platform using generative AI to deliver and maintain Grant’ds vision to become the go-to digital solution for grant seekers in Australia and globally.

Lactamo Holdings Pty Ltd, $365,000

Project Title: Scaling-up Lactamo to respond to demand nationally and internationally.

Lactamo is a world first in MedTech innovation for breastfeeding. Lactamo uniquely combines temperature, movement and compression to address the common breastfeeding problems. Independently clinically validated and IP protected, Lactamo is both proactive and reactive for breastfeeding.

The project will focus on 3 key activities consisting of marketing (domestically and internationally), the expansion of the team, and operational expansion support to facilitate growth, creating a secure foundation for the core business areas.

Leap4ward.ai Pty Ltd, $399,600

Project Title: Tech development of artificial intelligence-enabled virtual health coach

LeapForward.ai’s project is an artificial intelligence-enabled application that supports injured individuals to recover from a compensable injury or illness. The minimum viable product’s core function will implement a chatbot (“Virtual Health Coach”), which delivers virtual support and responds to users with scripted responses deployed via basic algorithms.

The project will utilise advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand the user’s expression, tone and sentiment.

Life Skills Group Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: Develop an SDK to integrate wellbeing data and tools into web-based systems

Life Skills’ project is a Software Development Kit that allows the integration of existing wellbeing data collection, measurement and analysis tools into third party applications. It is a platform to measure the emotional wellbeing of students.

Lush Organic Hair & Spa Forest Glen Pty Ltd, $150,000

Project Title: Penny Black Organic hair products – domestic and global expansion

Lush Organic Hair trades as Penny Black Organic (PBO) and is the only Certified Green Salon in the Southern Hemisphere. Lush Organic has developed 16 certified organic hair products.

The project will focus on scale manufacturing and organic packaging, product range expansion for direct customer sales both domestically and early international sales, recruitment of skilled management team to implement brand awareness and marketing.

Maxme Pty Ltd, $380,599

Project Title: Hodie+: Powering the Great Reconnection in the Digital Age

Maxme’s project is an immersive and digitally-enhanced human skill development learning experience underpinned by a digital learning application, empowering individuals to take control of their skills, careers, and futures, driving retention and engagement in the small to medium sized enterprises market. The gamified solution bridges the gap between employees and their jobs, integrated into daily work life through the application.

Meditati Pty Ltd, $330,000

Project Title: Commercialisation of tampon innovation to disrupt the FemCare market

The project will undertake Multi-Cultural Research for the commercialisation of a revolutionary applicator to disrupt the FemCare market. Key activities for the project are to create Go-To-Market brand, web-based education for schools and health practitioners. The project is developing a revolutionary soft applicator insertion solution. The New Zealand market pilot study will refine the go-to-market strategy for the Australian release.

Mettleaje Pty Ltd, $225,995

Project Title: Scaling Thirsty Turtl skincare boosts global Indigenous extracts market

Thirsty Turtl is an Australian skincare startup that launched in December 2022 with three products. The project will focus on growing the global market for Indigenous-sourced Australian native plant extracts.

This will be achieved through product expansion, sales growth via domestic and export-focused distributors, more efficient manufacturing and employment of specialised staff to build brand awareness.

MIIROKO Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: MIIROKO’s establishment and expansion into Japan

MIIROKO’s innovative vegan hair colour formula is free from ammonia, resorcinol, and paraphenylenediamine, empowering women with affordable access to salon-quality hair colour that is both gentle on their hair and environmentally friendly.

The project will focus on enhancing its digital capabilities, establishing a robust back-end team, and securing investment to leverage existing organic growth within the domestic market to scale into the lucrative Asian market, beginning with Japan.

Mineral Fox Pty Ltd, $262,500

Project Title: Mineral Fox National Expansion

Mineral Fox exists to help people return to nature and is a supplier of innovative, Australian-made natural plasters and renders that provide a sustainable, healthy a beautiful alternative to conventional wall coatings.

This project will support accelerated national expansion through additional headcount, systems, marketing and training.

More Good Days Pty Ltd, $396,318

Project Title: Digital Evidence-Based Pain Management Program for Fibromyalgia

This project will accelerate the build of MoreGoodDays pain management digital platform, and help accelerate growth across Australia and internationally.

Neomorph Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: NeoMorph – An innovative mouldable alternate to the dental-made mouthguard

NeoMorph Prodigy is an innovative over-the-counter, re-mouldable alternative to the dental-made mouthguard. The patent pending design, interlocks a dual polymer combination to provide a mouthguard that is securely custom fitting, protective and comfortable, to address the current concerns of end-users and the Australian Dental Association.

Our Trace Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Automate carbon footprinting for SMEs to scale in Australia and overseas

This project will focus on automating the process of collecting data from businesses and enhancing the accuracy and useability of the carbon inventory to power decarbonisation and enable Trace to scale. By integrating with technology that companies use every day, such as spreadsheets, accounting and travel management software, Trace can gather data required to measure, reduce and track emissions and establish channel partnerships with third parties already servicing our target customer.

Parking Spotz Pty Ltd, $388,917

Project Title: Parking Spotz – Electric Vehicle (EV) charging market expansion and execution of growth plan

Parking Spotz is developing an integrated hardware and software solution that automates parking bay security and optimises usage, turnover, and a return on investment through data-driven insights for electric vehicle (EV) charging bays.

The project will focus on product integration with new EV Charging partners, optimise and automate manufacturing processes for scaled production, execute sales growth plan with the recruitment of specialised management team and launch new data analytic modules to deliver valuable insights and position us as leaders in parking and EV data analytics.

 Pixii Pty Ltd, $133,740

Project Title: Changing women’s experience everywhere by bringing equality to bathrooms.

The project will result in a second generation dispenser for Pixii organic period products being brought to market, including new tech-enabled capabilities for stock monitoring and automated re-ordering. This will enable more building and facility managers to offer period products as part of their fundamental hygiene suppliers to staff and guests, just like soap and toilet paper.

The Paw Grocer Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Scaling for Expansion in the Domestic and Export Premium Pet Food Markets

The multi-faceted project will scale The Paw Grocer in both domestic and export markets. The grant funding will be used to improve our manufacturing capability & production efficiency, implement an inventory management system, and bring new products to market.

The One Two Pty Ltd, $362, 521

Project Title: The OneTwo domestic and global expansion

The OneTwo creates an easy bra shopping experience with hyper-personalised e-commerce, including a proprietary world-leading fit algorithm and innovative products.

The project aims to accelerate revenue growth in two years through commercialisation into the domestic and international market, as well as investments into intellectual property and technology.

Theratrak Pty Ltd, $150,000

Project Title: Theratrak, scale-up and market expansion to support the disability sector

Theratrak is developing an innovative online and mobile application based tool for therapists working with children with disabilities. Theratrak will support a wider cohort of people living with a disability, such as adults living with autism, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and other physical and mental health challenges.

Theratrak will support a wider cohort of people living with a disability, such as adults living with autism, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and other physical and mental health challenges.

Vapar Innovation Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: Innovative AI sewer technology expansion to the USA

Vapar Innovation is developing artificial intelligence for sewer technology expansion into the United States of America. Vapar will implement a channel strategy to reach early adopter customers and set up sales operations internationally.

VETNexus Pty Ltd, $200,000

Project Title: Bridging the National Digital Skills Gap: Leave no-one behind

VETNexus has developed a Digital Literacy Licence (DLL) which is a suite of online courses with digital badges. These badges can be displayed on a participant’s social media profile and resume to verify their skills when applying for employment.

The DLL takes participants on a journey of discovery and decision making, actively engaging with the concepts covered to ensure they have developed the full range of foundational digital skills by the time they complete their full DLL.

The project will include digital skills roadshows, marketing materials, learning content to promote and raise awareness of digital literacy.

X-Hemp Pty Ltd, $480,000

Project Title: Scaling X-Hemp, Building Homes, Elevating Women, Capturing Carbon

X-Hemp uses waste agricultural materials and purpose planted crops to make environmentally-friendly hemp building products.

The project aims to deliver synergistic investments in people and processes, equipment and business enabling infrastructure, new product development, branding, marketing and new market activation.

Zondii Pty Ltd, $427,000

Project Title: Zondii Wool Scanning Device + Female Leaders Project

Zondii’s technology goes beyond human senses to measure the true value of food and fibre. The prototype is currently in on-farm beta trials and its application in wool measurement has attracted a growing waitlist.

The Zondii Wool Scanning Device + Female Leaders Project will fund an industrial design and refinement process; product launch in Australia and New Zealand; and professional development for Zondii’s female leaders.

This project will establish Zondii as a financially sustainable female founded startup, with a commercial product in domestic and global markets, and will provide economic growth for wool growers, improved earning potential for women, and job creation internally and within the industry broadly.

The post Meet the 34 grant recipients sharing in the $11.6 million Boosting Female Founders Initiative appeared first on Women's Agenda.

I joined 6 other speakers, each sharing a different reflection on that dateful moment in 2012. When it was my turn to speak, I stared into the dark and took two deep breaths, before sharing why I had spent the past six years working to progress gender equality, why I’d founded Raise Our Voice Australia, a social enterprise aimed at mobilising young women and gender diverse people to transform policy and politics, and the legacy of that now famous speech for young people.

The audience was full of women, many of whom had brought their daughters, eager to share intergenerational reflections on this visceral rallying call as our highest political leader spoke up against treatment women had experienced for decades. In conversations afterwards, I heard both their optimism, and their frustration in how far we still had to go.

As part of my role leading Raise Our Voice Australia, I speak to young women and gender diverse people every week. Overwhelmingly, these young people, aged between 12-32 from across Australia, are smart, driven, and have a clear idea of the future they want to create – a future centred on climate change, equality, positive mental health, and support for education. Their message is clear: we’re passionate, can lead important change, and we don’t want to run for office as we don’t want to be in the firing line. Because, despite measures to get more women into politics, the lack of media accountability is stark.

I founded Raise Our Voice Australia in 2020, after years lamenting the absence of young women and gender diverse people from the seats of Australia’s parliaments. Years before, I co-founded a campaign to help young people ask “why not me?” when looking at their political representatives. After working in domestic policy and foreign policy as a senior policy officer, it was clear to me that those with the most at stake – young people – were missing from this decision making. Raise Our Voice Australia started with a training program, sharing knowledge on and networks in these key areas, before launching campaigns to connect young people with their elected representatives, running research, and building our community.

At Raise Our Voice Australia, we talk about how politics for women is shifting, and yet, this week was a visceral reminder that despite some positive shifts since 2017, some things haven’t changed.

You don’t have to look far to find a negative media story about women in the public eye, especially near the campaign trail. While gender was a key talking point in the 2022 federal election, media reporting of women remains reliant on outdated tropes. Who’s taking care of her family? Variations on “she was too emotional”. And recently, when I saw that Nine edited Georgie Purcell’s photo, enlarging her breasts and editing in a non-existent midriff, I was irate.

When Nine blamed its editing of Georgie Purcell’s photo – the youngest member of Victorian Parliament and a young, passionate woman who’s upset many on the conservative side of politics with her progressive views and her tendency to challenge the status quo – their excuses seemed laughable. It takes no stretch of the imagination to believe that the photo editing was deliberate.

After Adobe denied Nine’s claims of “but it was the AI,” the final insult was The Australian newspaper describing Purcell as a “ former stripper,” seemingly aimed at devaluing her worth and status as an important female politician based on her prior employment. In 2022, research conducted by Raise Our Voice Australia in partnership with the Body Shop Australia New Zealand, found that 13 per cent of young women and gender‑diverse people felt represented in politics, with just 35 per cent saying they would consider politics as a career.

Interrogating the media’s treatment of women in the public eye, 87 per cent of respondents reported that representation of women in politics by the media is mostly negative. Respondents cited the treatment of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, alongside the commentary surrounding Brittany Higgins, and Grace Tame. Other respondents noted the additional vitriol levelled as women of colour, First Nations people, gender diverse people, disabled people and sex workers.

In Australia, many of our media companies lack integrity. Too many rely on manufacturing outrage and printing stories that devalue women. When Georgie is described as a “former stripper” whether we like it or not, people click on the stories, and media companies know this. It’s gross and demeaning, reminiscent of a bunch of boys jeering and letting the woman know that they don’t value her achievements.

Like many media subjects before her, Georgie is an impressive MP, and a role model to so many young people, myself including. In the age of TikTok, too many articles are the product of the attention economy and drive click-bait journalism. What happened to pieces that are fact checked and rigorous? What happened to quality journalism? Some might even argue the public must also be held responsible for the maintenance of these tropes – after all, it’s us in the comment sections driving these debates. But, where are the media organisations leading a nuanced discussion on issues of policy rather than publishing the same tired,misogynistic click bait?

Four years into running Raise Our Voice Australia, I’m often overwhelmed by the scope of the problem we’re trying to fix. I’m frustrated. Frustrated that with every step forward, there’s someone – a journalist, editor or media outlet – who refuses to move. That we continue to ask women to “just put their hands up” or “lean in” while we tear them down in the media and in comment sections. The business case for diversity is strong: when we have more diversity in leadership, better outcomes are reached. And who doesn’t want better outcomes for all Australians?

Last year, I completed Pathways to Politics through Melbourne University. I’m determined that these hateful bullies do not win. In a cohort of 30 women, I received training on how to run for office and hear from incredible women political leaders.

If we truly want a better future, we need change, and we need accountability. It’s time that media outlets took some responsibility, and we the public voted with our clicks. If you’re sexist, I won’t subscribe. Newspapers are a declining medium, so if they want Gen Z, millennial and Gen X subscribers, they need to refocus their stories to meet our modern standards of inclusion and diversity.

As for Georgie? I couldn’t have more admiration for her courage, and for calling out this misogyny. But she shouldn’t have to. It’s time for change. The stakes are too high not to.

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Ciccone, a federal Senator from Victoria, held his 10-week-old son inside the chamber on Wednesday during Question Time. 

“I had a memorable day yesterday when baby Ciccone spent time with me while I was working in the Senate chamber,” Ciccone said.

“More fathers should have the opportunity to take their child to work wherever possible.”

Ciccone thanked his parliamentary colleagues for creating such a “family-friendly environment” in the Senate. He noted the day was particularly memorable as it also marked the second anniversary of the Set the Standard report, which was instrumental in making parliament a more inclusive place to work. 

Conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission and led by the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, the report was the culmination of an independent review into commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.

Ciccone also shared a photo of himself, his son and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, writing: “Great to start the week by introducing the newest member of the Ciccone family to the Prime Minister @AlboMP and colleagues today.”

Ciccone’s milestone as the first father to bring their baby to the Senate follows a precedent set by Senator Larissa Waters, who was the first federal politician to breastfeed their baby in parliament, back in 2017. Prior to that, it had not been generally accepted for babies to enter parliamentary chambers.

Indeed it wasn’t until 2016 that parliamentary rules were changed to enable female MPs to breastfeed in the chamber. Children had previously been banned from entering during divisions.

And while it is still rare for a parent to bring their baby into work with them in parliament, it is slowly becoming more accepted. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sparked international attention when she brought her child, Neve, to the United Nations General Assembly in 2018.

It’s also significant that it is no longer just female politicians who are bringing their babies to work. Ciccone’s milestone this week will play a role in normalising it for fathers too.

The post Senator Raff Ciccone becomes first father to bring baby into Senate chamber appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The Bill finalises the government’s expansion of paid parental leave that was first announced in the October 2022-23 Budget, increasing the scheme to 26 weeks, or 6 months by July 2026.

From July 1 2024, parents will be eligible for an additional two weeks of leave to the current 18 weeks on offer, followed by another two in 2025 and then the final weeks in 2026. 

Four weeks are reserved for each parent on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis, with these changes designed to encourage parents to share the care.

The Bill also introduces concurrent leave, which means that from 2026, both parents can take four weeks of leave at the same time if they choose to, providing families with the flexibility to arrange their care how they need. 

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth says the extra six weeks of is part of a total investment of $1.2 billion over five years from the Labor government towards paid parental leave. 

“Paid Parental Leave is a proud Labor legacy and our Albanese Labor Government is building and expanding on that legacy,” says Rishworth. 

“This will benefit over 180,000 families each year and represents the biggest expansion of the scheme since Labor introduced it in 2011.”

“The Bill gives Australian families more Paid Parental Leave than ever before and will support participation and productivity over the longer term, providing a dividend for the Australian economy,” she says.

There’s mounting evidence of a “motherhood penalty”, which refers to how becoming a mum in Australia comes with a high price for women. It occurs primarily because women take time out of the workforce or work fewer hours after having a child, which sees their lifetime earnings reduce significantly.

Creating an environment for fathers to take more parental leave has been shown to combat this, as shared parental leave policies can foster an equal division of unpaid care and paid work. 

Support for the Bill

Offering their suport for the increase to paid parental leave, the Australian Chamber of Commerce said “businesses are set to benefit by ensuring that fewer productive employees end up leaving workplaces permanently and more women remain in the labour market.”

Equality Rights Alliance, Australia’s largest network of organisations advocating for gender equality, has called the changes “equality enabling” and that it offers “significant advances in the promotion of Australian women’s economic security.”

Dr Leonora Risse, an economist specialising in gender equality, noted that this is a “historic milestone” for women’s rights and economic standing, and gender equality in Australia.

“The amendments in this Bill are an indisputable and significant improvement from previous policy settings and are strongly welcomed,” said Dr Risse. 

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Released on Wednesday, the data shows nearly 28 per cent of this group cited a lack of access to early childhood education and care as a barrier to employment, due to spots being booked out or inaccessible to them geographically. And 11.1 per cent said it was too expensive. 

The figures add to the mounting evidence of the “motherhood penalty“, the idea that becoming a mum in Australia comes with a high price for women. Last year, Treasury analysis found that women’s earnings falling by an average of 55 per cent in the first five years of parenthood, while men’s earnings are generally unaffected when they enter parenthood.

The ABS survey asked women with children under 15 what would help them in being able to take on a job. The majority (67.6 per cent) said the strongest incentive is the ability to work part-time hours. Many women also cited the ability to work during school hours and 53 per cent cited the ability to vary start and finish times. 

“These findings tell the story of the juggling act that so many women find themselves trying to balance– one that strikes the right balance between feeling financially stable and pursuing parenthood in a way that works for them,” said Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood.

“Unfortunately, the structure of our society is still set up for an era that no longer exists, when dads worked and mums didn’t.

“In modern Australia it takes two incomes for most families to cover a mortgage or the rent, but it takes affordable early childhood education and outside school hours and care to earn two incomes.” 

Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood

Unlocking $128 billion for the Australian economy

This isn’t just a personal issue either. The systemic barriers holding women back from the workforce are costing the Australian economy $128 billion, according to the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce. The tasforce released a final report at the end of last year, looking at how much money could be gained with women’s full and equal participation in economic activity. 

“Women’s economic inequality is so normalised that people assume it is a result of women’s choices, but Australia has the most highly educated female labour force in the world,” the Chair of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, Sam Mostyn AO told the National Press Club back in October. 

Considering this high price for the Australian economy, Dent says that “early childhood education and care centres in Australia should be funded by the government as critical infrastructure”. 

“Early childhood education and paid parental leave must be seen as critical infrastructure. You can’t go to work if you don’t have a road to get there. You can’t go to work if you don’t have an affordable and safe place for your kid. These things are synonymous.”

Gender equal parenting

Last month, The Parenthood launched The Dad’s Alliance Action Plan, showing that Australian men also want to see a cultural shift in which childcare and employment policies permit both parents to share the work and care loads. 

To do this, Dent says The Parenthood wants the Government to remove the Activity Test (a highly criticised requirement for parents to access subsidised early childhood education and care), make childcare more affordable for low and middle income families with young children and develop more early learning centres in regional and remote areas. 

“We also want to see an increase to paid parental leave entitlements for both mothers and fathers, so that less parents feel their care and career trajectories are at odds,” says Dent.

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