The taskforce has seven primary recommendations to the Government that will drive women’s economic equality and contribute to a strong and globally competitive Australian economy. Each recommendation contains immediate actions for implementation, and medium- to long-term actions over the following years that will cumulatively drive Australia towards a stronger economy and gender equality over the coming decade.
Recommendation 1
The Australian Government must provide leadership and accountability for driving economic equality outcomes and embed gender equity into its decision making, budgeting and policy design, implementation and evaluation mechanisms.
Immediate actions
1.1. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Women will deliver an annual report to update the Australian Parliament on progress and effectiveness of Government actions taken to achieve economic equality and progress for women.
They will also provide action plans for areas requiring further strengthening or improvement. The Minister for Women should provide additional reporting on progress on priorities set out in the National Gender Equality Strategy.
1.2. In line with OECD best practice, legislate to integrate gender impact assessment and gender-responsive processes into policy design, implementation and evaluation; legislative processes; and budgeting to ensure the unique challenges faced by women, particularly diverse groups of women, are addressed and that gender equality is foregrounded in the work and investments of government. This requires an intersectional approach.
The Government should improve, not worsen, the lives of women and this imperative should underpin the work of central and service delivery agencies (including in important areas such as employment and social services).
1.3. Enable the Office for Women to align its work with leading international practice as a centre of expertise on gender equality in government.
This Office must be appropriately funded to expand its capacity to design and inform policy and drive change in policy practice across the APS. The Office for Women must have the right skills, expertise and leadership, and be appropriately connected with the leadership of the broader APS to perform its functions with impact.
1.4. Establish and resource an independent national women’s economic equality advisory body to oversee the recommendations in this report, work collaboratively with other gender equality advisory bodies (such as in health and violence prevention), provide independent advice to the government on policy priorities and progress women’s economic equality over a 10-year horizon.
1.5. Improve the use of the data that’s currently available, collect new data where needed and build the right tools to present an accurate and nuanced understanding of the dimensions of gendered economic inequality in Australia and the needs of women experiencing disadvantage.
This includes setting an expectation of evidence-based policy development and investing in the data capabilities of the APS to build, collect and use gender-disaggregated data sets.
Long-term actions
1.6. Invest in sustained gender-equality capability improvement initiatives within the APS. These initiatives should focus on developing comprehensive and tailored training programs on gender analysis of policy design, implementation and assessment catering to the specific needs and remit of different agencies and their policy end-users.
1.7. Model leading practice in gender-equitable and diverse employment in the APS by taking action to improve the gender pay gap; address occupational and portfolio-based gender segregation; achieve and maintain gender balance and broader diversity in the ranks of the Senior Executive Service; provide and encourage access to high-quality, secure, flexible work; and increase men’s uptake of flexible work and care-focused leave (such as paid parental leave and carer’s leave). 1.8. Establish an independent inquiry into the social security system and broader legislative frameworks (including the family law system) using a gender impact assessment framework to understand where systems, rules and practices reduce women’s safety and enable post-separation violence and coercive control.
This needs to include existing practices that do not entirely or only partially fulfil their stated aim.
Recommendation 2
The Australian Government must invest in policies and programs that recognise the economic importance and value of care work in Australia and help families to better share caring responsibilities.
Immediate actions
2.1. Legislate to establish and invest in universal, high-quality and affordable early childhood education and care. This needs to meet the needs of modern families, be culturally appropriate and be delivered by highly skilled, securely employed and well-paid employees.
2.2. Abolish the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test, as an immediate first step towards universal access to early education for Australian children.
2.3. Support applications in the Fair Work jurisdiction that seek to raise the wages and improve the job quality of early childhood educators. As a step to remedying historical undervaluation of educators’ work, ensure that the outcomes of these cases are fully funded.
2.4. Strengthen rights and protections for working parents and carers and ensure workers can access parental leave entitlements and high-quality, flexible work arrangements. Importantly, we need to ensure they are not discriminated against when seeking to use those entitlements.
2.5. Fully implement the National Care and Support Economy Strategy and develop policies that improve care workers’ wages, security and safety of their work, and recognises their work as a critical part of our society. This includes ensuring fair remuneration, access to professional development opportunities and mechanisms for career progression.
The government also needs to design a strategy to address gender imbalance across the full spectrum of the care sector.
2.6. Legislate the payment of superannuation on all forms of paid parental leave.
Long-term actions
2.7. Extend the Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme by phasing the entitlement up to 52 weeks and boosting the quantum of payments to reach a replacement wage and ensure the scheme incentivises men’s use of PPL. (The Business Council of Australia strongly supports in principle strengthening the PPL scheme and have developed their own preferred model).[37]
2.8. Elevate the status of care work and attract a diverse and skilled workforce by valuing and adequately compensating care workers, including by supporting relevant Fair Work Commission cases and committing to fund their outcomes.
Recommendation 3
The Australian Government must utilise its legislative, regulatory and spending powers to ensure all Australian workplaces create safe, secure, flexible and equitable work opportunities that support women’s economic participation.
Immediate actions
3.1. Implement all the Respect@Work and Set the Standard Report recommendations and monitor their impact in proactively facilitating safe workplaces for Australian women.
3.2. Build the supply of good, secure jobs for women and address insecure work by providing stronger protections for workers employed in insecure work.
3.3. Boost the availability of high-quality flexible working (rather than precarious forms); strengthen the rights of employees to flexible work and family-friendly working arrangements; introduce workplace protections for reproductive health, e.g., the ability to request flexible working arrangements; and implement reasonable adjustments and take new forms of leave.
3.4. Harmonise anti-discrimination and industrial legislation to include positive, enforceable legal duties on employers to eliminate discrimination and harassment and advance gender equality, including a positive duty on employers to reasonably accommodate the needs of workers who are pregnant and/or have family responsibilities.
3.5. Ensure that minimum and award wage setting processes take into account what would be considered an appropriate living wage for employees.
3.6. Encourage employers to set gender equality targets and strengthen the Workplace Gender Equality Agency reporting obligations to include meaningful benchmarks against which to measure progress towards gender equality year-on-year.
3.7. Strengthen the capacity of women to access representation from appropriate organisations and services when they wish to take action regarding discrimination within industrial jurisdictions.
This means ensuring that important institutions such as the Office of the Sex Discrimination Commission and the specialist panels in the Fair Work Commission are appropriately resourced to meet demand.
3.8 Ensure that government funding of sectors and services facilitates the availability of high-quality and secure work in these areas. This will mean that funding is adequate to support living wages, decent work and the capacity to progress and develop in careers, e.g., in the early-childhood education and care, aged care and disability support sectors.
Recommendation 4
The Australian Government must provide women in Australia with lifelong, accessible, flexible and affordable education and skill building. They must also remove existing disincentives and inequities that perpetuate industry and occupational segregation and sustained pay and wealth gaps.
4.1. Work with industry, unions and other stakeholders – including employer associations, professional associations and advocacy groups – to establish or scale programs that support women to enter and flourish in traditionally male-dominated sectors of employment.
Investigate mechanisms to generate better impact from current government investments aimed at boosting participation in these sectors, including strategically aligning government programs, evaluating the effectiveness of investments, and experimenting with and evaluating new approaches.
4.2. Reimagine the recently abolished ParentsNext program and co-design new offerings in conjunction with single mothers, the predominant policy target.
Focus on maximising support to single mothers and capacity building of existing community services.
4.3. Address work respect, health and safety barriers for women in male-dominated industries, such as gendered violence, lack of access to safe, secure and dedicated facilities for women (such as toilets and changing rooms); and a lack of appropriate, suitable personal protective equipment, tools and clothing.
4.4. Invest in education in early childhood, schools and tertiary education systems to deliver opportunities for girls and women that will enable them to participate in every aspect of economic, social and cultural life.
4.5. Ensure that teaching and nursing students can complete their studies without financial penalty by requiring that they are paid for their mandatory placements. Develop a national strategy and invest in action to close the First Nations employment gap (as per Closing the Gap Targets 7 and 8) with a focus on meaningful, skilled and well-paid employment for First Nations women.
Increase funding in Indigenous Employment Programs run by Aboriginal Community-Controlled Community Organisations.
Longer-term action
4.6. Trial a program with a cohort of older Australian women returning to the workforce and looking to upskill. As part of the trial, create a pathway for women to engage with a wide range of courses from pre-approved providers.
Recommendation 5
The Australian Government must undertake a long-term, targeted and deliberate investment program to ensure women are leading and building the economy in equal measure to men.
Immediate actions
5.1. Leverage the government’s purchasing power to incentivise and support businesses committed to – and demonstrating positive action to achieve – inclusive and equitable employment practices.
This should prioritise awarding contracts to businesses that deliver positive action in areas including pay equity, addressing gender segregation and segmentation, building respectful workplace cultures and leveraging workplace diversity and inclusion.
Additionally, ensure that government funding of services and sectors (such as through the provision of care services) lifts the quality of jobs rather than entrenches inequalities. Incorporate these principles, priorities and effective compliance into the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
5.2. Continue to invest in programs to increase the proportion of women in Parliament, government boards and community leadership roles.
Long-term actions
5.3. Develop programs that encourage women’s equal participation and flourishing careers in emerging industries such as clean energy, new technologies, climate-positive industries, digital, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) development. Additionally, increase women’s access to seed funding and capital for entrepreneurial initiatives.
5.4. Develop an inclusive procurement policy that prioritises awarding contracts to businesses that demonstrate positive action in gender equality, pay equity, and diversity, equity and inclusion. This could include setting targets for the number of women employed/engaged through government-issued contracts, particularly for services in male-dominated industries.
5.5. Establish a supplier diversity program to actively seek out and support businesses owned by women, minority groups and other under-represented groups, to build their capability and capacity to bid competitively for government procurement and contracts.
Recommendation 6
The Government must ensure that women have financial security across their lives and are increasingly building lifetime wealth and economic equality.
Immediate actions
6.1. Co-design a comprehensive financial support program for victim-survivors of domestic and family violence that enables them to leave violence, re-establish safe and stable housing and focus on recovery without incurring financial losses. This new program should build on the trial Escaping Violence Payment program. [38]
6.2. Ensure financial literacy programs are part of the curriculum for all high school students to enable young people to understand the basic concepts of managing personal finances, building personal wealth and the life states and choices that can have a significant impact on economic security.
Long-term actions
6.3. Review the taxation and transfer systems with a gender lens to identify negative gender biases and examine options to address the high Effective Marginal Tax Rates (EMTRs) experienced by women.
6.4. Require banks and financial services to continue to develop financial products and services specifically for the needs of women across their life course, that are free or very low-cost. This includes for women escaping domestic and family violence, buying a home, experiencing divorce and/or retirement planning.
Introduce regulation and/or initiatives to ensure the needs of women are protected when using specific financial services, including those that have harsh penalties and consequences, such as Buy-Now-Pay-Later schemes.
6.5. Remove the Child Support Maintenance Income Test (MIT) from the Family Tax Benefit Part A (FTBA) calculation, to establish certainty of FTBA payments for financially vulnerable families and to prevent child support from being used as a tool of financial abuse.
6.6. Reduce the financial penalty from caring responsibilities, such as carers’ tax offsets upon re-entering paid work, and pausing indexation on HECS-HELP debts for periods of time away from paid work.
Recommendation 7
The Australian Government must invest in programs to address community attitudes and bias that prevent women’s full economic participation across a lifetime.
Immediate actions
7.1. Implement and resource the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality, ensuring community attitudes and biases are addressed, through evidence-based practice, at both a whole-of-population, community and industry level. Build a comprehensive research agenda to inform normative change and measure progress.
7.2. Work with the e-Safety Commissioner to design initiatives to address how online experiences shape attitudes towards gender equality and support women and men’s equal place in society, with a particular focus on young people’s experiences online.
7.3. Demonstrate international leadership through participation in regional and multilateral fora to counter anti-gender equality sentiment globally and use Australia’s position to advocate for the safety, health and economic outcomes of women and girls globally.
7.4. Resource critical women’s advocacy work, such as the National Women’s Alliances or similar models, to provide a consultative mechanism to elevate the voices of diverse women and girls around the country. These advocacy groups should also provide advice on policy priorities to improve women’s economic equality and life outcomes, including by working with the National Women’s Economic Equality Advisory Body (recommendation 1.4).
7.5. The proposed (recommendation 1.4) National Women’s Economic Equality Advisory body to meet annually with other women’s advisory committees and councils, such as those appointed to oversee the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030 and the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–32.