Australian women are among the winners in this year’s Federal Budget delivered by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday night.
With women’s economic equality in focus, Mr Chalmers said the Federal Government has “taken action to close the gender pay gap” as well as providing further support for those experience family and domestic violence.
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Women’s Safety
An additional $589.3 million – on top of the $1.7 billion invested in the October budget – will be invested towards women’s safety.
This will see $194 million dedicated for Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan.
The government is also providing funding to support the development of a standalone First Nations National Plan for Family and further, will invest $18.6 million to prevent and address
sexual violence, and funding to support migrant women, including women on temporary
visas, to escape violence.
Women’s Health and Wellbeing
The Federal Government has commited $26.4 million over four years to extend support
for research and data collection activities that support women and girls’ health outcomes,
including the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health
Single Parent Payment
From September, about 57,000 eligible single parents will benefit from a rise in the cut-off age to the single parenting payment.
The age will rise from eight to 14, expecting to cost the government $1.9 billion over the next four years to see some families receive an extra $176.90 a fortnight.
Eligible recipients will be able to earnt at least $52.60 more over a fortnight before losing their payments.
Workforce
$72.4 million has been invested to “support, build and retain” the early childhood education and care workforce, as it continues to faces shortages.
National targets for women apprentices and trainees working on major government-funded construction and information and communications technology projects will also be set. It’s set to increase annually and hopes to triple participation to see 12 per cent of the overall workforce in contrsuction identify as women, and 10 per cent in trade apprenticeships.
As announced before the official budget hand down on Tuesday, aged care workers will also benefit from a 15 per cent payrise.
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“We’re the first government in Australia’s history with a majority of women in our ranks,” Mr Chalmers said in his speech.
“And as the Finance Minister and Minister for Women often says: we know equality for women is not an add‑on, not a nice‑to‑have.
“It’s crucial for our prosperity.”
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