Women's social policy
NFAW 2008 Budget submissions
NFAW has had a long-standing interest in the impact of government policies on the health and welfare of women and girls and is firmly committed to the principle of evidence- based policy. In response the government's request for submissions for the coming budget, NFAW has presented submissions on three topics:
- Wage equity
- Paid maternity leave
- Child abuse and neglect
Paid Maternity Leave
Information from 52 countries, including every European country and non-European OECD ones, shows that Australia and the US are the only ones without comprehensive paid maternity leave.
What we can do to support paid maternity leave in Australia
WorkChoices & Welfare to work
In 2007, the NFAW, together with WEL Australia and YWCA Australia, published a report Women and WorkChoices: Impacts on the Low Pay Sector. This report showed that WorkChoices wasn’t working for low paid women and their families.
Read more on the report and other activities
NFAW Social Policy Committee
The NFAW Social Policy Committee undertakes a work program approved by the Board of Directors of the Foundation, and all public statements on behalf of NFAW are authorised by NFAW office bearers.
The annual work program is developed by the Committee, and frequently involves co-operative efforts with other bodies, as well as individual action by the Foundation.
NFAW is affiliated with two of the National Secretariats funded for national women's organisations by the Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women-
Through the work of the Social Policy Committee NFAW has played an influential role in 2004 and 2005 in the public policy debates about abortion and the approval process for RU486 and as well about changes to the industrial relations system and welfare support for people of working age.
The abortion and RU486 debates involved collaboration with the Public Health Association of Australia, and the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance.
The debates about the Government’s Welfare to Work and WorkChoices policies were conducted through a consortium of 64 national women’s organisations, arranged through the Commonwealth funded national secretariats.
From its very first stages, the intention of the core founding group of the NFAW (Marie Coleman, Wendy Fatin MHR, Helen L'Orange, and the Hon. Ann Symonds MLC) was to explore aspects of social policy and produce material which would be a resource to the broad women's movement. Our founding donor, Pamela Denoon, intended to give financial support to the same concept. Because the NFAW is entirely non-politically-partisan, we did not, and would not, support a political Party policy, but can and do examine different policies against our stated basic principles. Early work had included papers on indigenous women's issues, and the 1989 National Women's Conference.
In 2004 the NFAW Board of Directors approved the establishment of a Social Policy Sub-committee of the Board, and this committee, based in Canberra with corresponding members interstate, welcomes expressions of interest in joining us from potential new members.
The current work program is focussed on paid maternity leave and equal pay. This program arose from the consultations that were undertaken on WorkChoices and women.
Contact: Marie Coleman