2009 Women’s Budget Statement

Supporting Women’s paid and unpaid work

Changes to participation requirements allow principal carer parents to meet participation requirements by combining study, voluntary work and paid work.
Women’s work is both paid and unpaid. Between 1992 and 2006, women’s workforce participation increased from 48 to 55 per cent.⁹ Women now represent 45.6 per cent of all employed people.¹⁰ At the same time, women continue to provide the largest amount of informal care and household work. On average, women spend over 33 hours a week on household work¹¹ and make up 71 per cent of primary carers of people who are frail, aged or have disabilities.¹² Women are more likely to take time out of the workforce to care for children. Women also make up over 90 per cent of parenting payment recipients.¹³

The Australian labour market is highly segregated by sex, with men more likely to be employed in manufacturing and construction industries and women dominating the service industries.¹⁴ Women outnumber men in casual employment both in total and across all workforce age categories.¹⁵ Casual and part-time work, along with the gender pay gap and broken employment due to unpaid caring responsibilities, reduce women’s lifetime earnings and retirement savings. NATSEM estimates that if current earning patterns continue, the average 25 year old male would earn $2.4 million over the next 40 years while the average 25 year old female would earn $1.5 million.¹⁶

More than half the students in higher education and just under half the enrolments in vocational education and training are women.¹⁷

Improved participation requirements for parents

The majority of parents and other carers of children who receive parenting payments are women. In December 2008, 95 per cent of Parenting Payment Single recipients and 92 per cent of Parenting Payment Partnered recipients were women.¹⁸

It is important for parents and other carers (for example, foster or kinship carers) on working age income support payments to be involved in determining their pathways into work and to have access to education, training, child care and services to address barriers to participation. Changes to participation requirements that allow principal carer parents to meet participation requirements by combining study, voluntary work and paid work will provide parents with more flexible opportunities to gain skills and qualifications.

Following recommendations from the Government's Participation Taskforce Review, the Government is taking significant steps to respond to the needs of single parents. From 1 July 2010, foster and kinship carers with principal responsibilities for children will have greater opportunities to gain skills needed to find work, including: Parenting Payment Single recipients will be exempt from change to the income test taper changes that will apply to other pensioners.

allowing principal carer parents to meet participation requirements by combining part-time study, voluntary work with vocational value and part-time paid work;
supporting principal carer parents who want to start their own business to participate in self-employment programs, including the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS);
confirming that principal carer parents will be exempt from part-time participation requirements during Christmas and New Year in recognition that child care is very difficult to obtain;
introducing a 12 month exemption for grandparents and other relatives who are entering into kinship care arrangements recognised through a court order or case plan;
improving the ability of parents experiencing domestic violence to obtain exemptions from participation requirements and allowing greater discretion for exemptions to be extended beyond the existing 16 weeks; and
allowing principal carer parents who work during school term more flexible arrangements over the long school holidays, if they are temporarily not employed but are likely to resume employment once the school term re-commences.

The Government is providing $26.8 million to improve arrangements for parents with participation requirements that will allow them to more effectively balance family and caring responsibilities with their participation requirements. From 1 July 2009, the Government’s reformed employment services – Job Services Australia – will fold seven programs into a one stop shop that will provide personalised support for job seekers. These measures complement the Government’s productivity and education agendas and will create greater opportunities for parents to gain additional skills.

Retaining the incentive for workforce participation

Parenting Payment Single recipients will be exempt from change to the income test taper changes that will apply to other pensioners. The income tests applying to age, disability support pensions and Carer Payment are being tightened from 40 cents in the dollar to 50 cents in the dollar. In light of the importance of ensuring women do not face barriers when they return to work, this reform will not apply to single parents.

Training Supplement

As part of the Government’s Jobs and Training The Government will provide $83 million to reduce the compulsory HELP debt repayments for education and nursing graduates working in these professions.
Compact, the Budget provides $83 million to help eligible job seekers on income support through a temporary Training Supplement. This provides an ongoing supplement of $41.60 per fortnight to eligible low skilled job seekers on Newstart Allowance or Parenting Payment who are undertaking approved training at Certificate II to Certificate IV level.

It is estimated that over 500,000 low skilled job seekers will take up this measure over the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2011. This commitment builds on the Government’s suite of measures to help the unemployed skill up or re-skill to improve their job prospects when the economy recovers. It includes:

a $1,158 bonus to sign up to training ($950 Training and Learning Bonus plus $208 Education Entry Payment); and
a place to study (711,000 Productivity Places including 319,000 available for job seekers).

Together these measures will provide people on Newstart and Parenting Payment, undertaking a 12 month course, with the equivalent of an additional $43 a week in financial assistance.

Nurse practitioner workforce expansion

The Government will provide $59.7 million over four years to expand the role of nurse practitioners, including by providing appropriate access to Medicare Benefits Schedule and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme support from November 2010. This measure will provide for the development of a long term and sustainable model for nurse practitioners, helping to improve the flexibility and capacity of Australia's health workforce. Expanding the role of nurse practitioners is an effective way to address the challenges of Australia’s health workforce, particularly in regional and remote areas.

Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) repayment reduction for education and nursing graduates

The Government will provide $83 million to reduce the compulsory HELP debt repayments for education and nursing graduates working in these professions. HELP debts will be reduced by up to $1,536 (indexed annually) for each year in which the graduates work in these professions, for up to a maximum of 260 weeks of eligible employment. This will encourage students to enter and remain employed in the teaching and nursing professions.

Textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) Building Innovative Capability Package

In its 2003 review of the textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry the Productivity Commission identified that women accounted for more than 55 per cent of the TCF workforce and that the majority of those women were from non-English speaking backgrounds and likely to be married. This reduced their mobility and ability to be employed elsewhere. The TCF industry also comprises thousands of outworkers, the majority of whom are women from a non-English speaking background.¹⁹ The TCF Building Innovative Capability Package delivers $185 million over the 2010-11 to 2014-15 program years and will provide support to this female dominated industry. The Package will increase the focus of the TCF industry assistance on innovation, while retaining entitlement-based assistance for the clothing and household textile products industries.

Child care

The Government will invest $12.8 billion to support 800,000 families to access affordable and high quality child care. The Government will invest $2.5 million in 2009-10 to provide a child care estimator to help families make informed decisions about child care. The Child Care Tax Rebate will provide $4.4 billion over four years to assist working families with their out of pocket child care costs. The Child Care Benefit will deliver $8.4 billion over four years to reduce child care fees.

The Government will also provide $9.3 million over four years for an additional 250 Outside School Hours Care places for teenagers with disability or serious medical conditions. This builds on a highly successful program that is delivering targeted developmental, social and recreational activities for young people with disability. This program supports parents and carers who want to return to work, extend their working hours, or stay working.

Simpler rules for separated families

Rules about child support obligations and eligibility for separated parents will be made simpler and more consistent. From 1 July 2010, separated parents will only have to seek one determination recognising their level of care for their children that will then be used by both the child support and family assistance systems. The changes will also make it easier for separated parents to notify changes in their care arrangements.

Additional funding for the Child Support Program

The Government will provide the Child Support Program with an additional $223.2 million to reduce the growth in child support debt and maintain customer service standards, such as telephone response times.

Recruitment and retention of women in Defence

Over the next ten years Defence will provide $15 million to improve the recruitment and retention of women in the Australian Defence Force. The Australian Defence Force Recruitment of Women Strategy will improve awareness of the career options available and better prepare candidates for the physical and mental challenges they will encounter.

This includes:

expanding the current Physical Employment Standards project to identify the inherent physical requirements of the various Australian Defence Force employment categories;
developing coaching and mentoring programs to assist Defence personnel and their managers to balance the demands of service life with personal and family interests; and
investigating strategies in the areas of career management, flexible working arrangements, training and professional development, work and family balance and support to improve retention.

Education and training

These reforms sit alongside the Government's investment for a world-class education system. The 2009-10 Budget will provide $5.7 billion over four years for higher education and innovation.

The 2009-10 Budget will also deliver on:

the Education Revolution to give Australian children the best possible start in life to:
- drive equity and excellence in schools across Australia;
- match education and training to people’s ambitions; and
- give Australians access to a world class tertiary education and research system.
a better system of matching people, skills and jobs; and
fair and productive workplaces.

In total, the Government has increased education spending by around 50 per cent in real terms over the current five year period compared to the previous one.

Notes

⁹Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian social trends, March 2009, Cat. no. 4102.0, ABS, Canberra, 2009.
¹⁰Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Australia April 2009, Cat. no. 6202.0, seasonally adjusted data, ABS, Canberra, 2009.
¹¹Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian social trends, March 2009, Cat. no. 4102.0, ABS, Canberra, 2009.
¹²Australian Bureau of Statistics, Survey of Disability Ageing and Carers: Summary of Findings 2003, Cat. no. 4430.0, ABS, Canberra, 2004.
¹³Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, unpublished administrative data, DEEWR, Canberra, 2009.
¹⁴Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, Feb 2009, Cat. no. 6291.0.55.003, Table 07. Employed persons by Occupation and Sex, ABS, Canberra, 2009.
¹⁵Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly, Feb 2009, Cat. no. 6291.0.55.003, ABS, Canberra, 2009.
¹⁶AMP.NATSEM, ‘She works hard for the money: Australian women and the gender divide’, AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report, Issue 22, April 2009, NATSEM, Canberra, 2009.
¹⁷Australian Government Office for Women, Women in Australia 2009, Office for Women, Canberra, 2009.
¹⁸Centrelink Administrative data, December 2008
¹⁹ Productivity Commission, Review of TCF assistance: Inquiry report, Report no. 26, 31 July 2003, Productivity Commission, Canberra, 2003.

[ top ]