Equality for women? Don’t make me laugh

Work is not all that's required. The work must be secure, and have decent pay and conditions. Ideally an initial low paid and low skilled job will lead to a better job, and then an even better job, and so on.

Work must be flexible enough for women to be able to juggle work and quality parenting. Clearly, as a nation we need to invest more in quality childcare, in access to training and skills acquisition. The Federal Government gets that.

What the Federal Government is actively ignoring is the manifest inadequacy of welfare payments – the ugly elephant in the national policy room. No one can live decently on any Australian transfer payment for any length of time. I challenge anyone to try.

Our welfare system was largely designed in a time when unemployment was short term and sporadic, and the payment levels reflect that. While you might be able to survive on welfare payments to bridge some weeks without paid work, you can't live decently on them over the long term. For far too many women today, unemployment is long-term and endemic.

Unless and until we acknowledge the inherent dignity of each person by a practical and persistent commitment to rights-based policy and practice we will never close the gaps. Women will continue to travel on one of two tracks, and on both tracks we will be paid less and have access to less opportunity than men.

It's important that every woman gets a fair go. It's important that we get it right on adequate and equitable welfare payments, on paid maternity leave, on access to quality childcare, on equitable pay in industries dominated by women. It's essential that we ensure every woman can access basic supports and services, including safe and affordable housing, transport, health and education.

We are living in a country where 11 per cent of the population is living in poverty, where over 100,000 people are homeless, where hundreds of thousands of people are on public dental waiting lists, where our 2 million welfare recipients can't access the supports and services they need to get and keep a job, while trying to survive on woefully inadequate levels of payment. This is not the Australia I want to live in.

I want to live in a country where every citizen is valued. Where every person has the opportunity to participate in, and contribute to, their community. Where women have the same opportunities and outcomes as men. Where diversity is celebrated and where government takes a strong lead in delivering social justice and inclusion for all.

Women as a population group generally fall behind men on too many indicators. For disadvantaged women, the descent is accelerated with many women finding themselves and their children on a road to a place from which it is very difficult, if not impossible, to return.

While the country is enjoying historic prosperity, we can and must do better. As Tracey Chapman sings: If not now, then when?