Australian Government to Focus on Reducing Women’s Economic Disadvantage in May 9 Budget

Australian Finance Minister Katy Gallagher speaks at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Sept. 1, 2022. Martin Ollman/Getty Images

The Australian government will prioritise narrowing the “economic disadvantage” of women in its upcoming budget by providing more funding for women who are likely to suffer the most under the current economic conditions.

Addressing the public ahead of the release of the May 9 budget, Finance and Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher said the budget would be a “very strong” one for Australian women.

“We made a commitment as a government that we wanted to put women at the centre of our decision-making,” she told reporters.

“The Jobs and Skills Summit identified driving women’s economic equality as a key priority for our prosperity, and we have heard that.”

So far, the government has announced significant spending packages to be featured in the upcoming budget, including living cost relief for struggling Australians and record pay rises for aged care workers, amid pressures from high inflation, interest rate hikes and the huge government debt.

Under the challenging economic conditions, the minister said the government understood that budget spending should flow to areas that would make the most significant difference.

“And some of that is addressing support for the most disadvantaged women,” she said in comments obtained by AAP.

While the government had guaranteed more support for disadvantaged women, Gallagher said the strong labour market would reduce the impact of the economic headwinds on this group of people.

“The participation rate for women, while it lags men, is reasonably strong compared to where it’s been in the past,” she said.

ParentsNext Program Abolished

Gallagher’s remarks come as the Labor government has announced the abolishment of the ParentsNext program, which provides support for Australian parents with young children.

From May 5, the government will pause all compulsory requirements for participants in ParentsNext and will eventually phase it out on July 1, 2024.

“There have been a number of reviews and recommendations around the sort of punitive nature of this program targeting vulnerable young people, in particular young single parents,” Gallagher said.

“The mutual obligation side of ParentsNext will stop. We will work with stakeholders, program deliverers and others to co-design a program that is more appropriate.

“We want to make sure that this group of vulnerable Australians do get the support that they need to get ready for work … we just don’t believe we need to take their money away in the process.”

A father and his young son walk past shuttered businesses in the CBD of Lismore, New South Wales in Australia on May 15, 2022. Dan Peled/Getty Images

The former Coalition government introduced the program in 2018 to help parents prepare for work before their youngest child starts school.

Under the program, parents who receive the Parenting Payment with a child between nine months and under six years old are required to attend regular appointments.

The appointments are supposed to help parents identify their education and employment goals and a pathway to achieving them.

Parents who fail to attend the appointments can have their support payments suspended or cancelled.

A parliament inquiry into the program in 2019 indicated that there was evidence of harm to the participants.

“Although ParentsNext is asserted to be a supportive program that helps parents of young children work towards their education and employment goals, the Senate Community Affairs References Committee (the committee) has received extensive evidence that the program is causing anxiety, distress and harm for many of its participants,” the inquiry said.

“In fact, many have argued that ParentsNext is causing more harm than good.”

At the time, the inquiry recommended that the program should not be continued in its current form and instead be redesigned into a more supportive pre-employment program.

According to the government, around 95 percent of the participants were women.