Coalition

In the last parliament the Coalition made some significant investments in women’s safety, health, workforce participation and economic security - but has also failed to adopt a national gender equality strategy, or gender-responsive budget process.

In the last parliament the Coalition heavily invested in construction and male-dominated industries, but neglected women-dominated industries like caring. During the Coalition’s tenure Australia has fallen in the_ World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, dropping to 50 out of 156 countries. _Overall, their action to address gender inequality - a key driver of gender-based violence - has been inadequate.

Positively, the Morrison Government has committed record funding for Our Watch. However, they have also misspent in this area in the form of actively harmful relationships and consent resources for students via the Good Society website and its milkshake consent content, and are yet to resource expert-led implementation of the new curriculum. They have also not made commitments to develop the workforce needed to drive prevention work at scale. (View the full analysis here)

In the last parliament the Coalition announced significant funding increases for domestic and family violence response in recent years, including in supporting the expansion of successful pilot programs.

In the last parliament the overall funding commitment was the largest commitment of resourcing by any government to date. However, after decades of neglect, the scale of the funding provided still falls far short of what is needed to address this national crisis.

The Coalition has committed $1 billion of funding in the 8 years between 2013 - 2021, and $2.5 billion over the next five years. However advocates are calling for $1 billion each year for every year of the National Plan.

Current levels of funding leave massive gaps in the service response framework that victim-survivors require for safety and ongoing recovery, and will leave women in danger. (View the full analysis here)

In the last parliament the Coalition committed to lead a national discussion through the Attorney-General with states and territories to strengthen justice responses to sexual violence. However, in key areas of federal responsibility for systems reform, the Morrison Government has been a negative actor.

The Morrison Government drove reform to abolish the Family Court, despite opposition from key women’s, safety and legal groups. They also shelved a plan for an independent taskforce to address university sexual violence, which the Turnbull Government was set to announce. While the Morrison Government has committed to fund additional legal assistance for women; they have also blocked a key safety reform to Family Law; and backed a new parliamentary inquiry opposed by safety advocates, and Deputy Chaired by Pauline Hanson. They have voted against legislating 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave for all workers. (View the full analysis here)

In the last parliament the Coalition implemented some of the legal and regulatory changes recommended in the Respect @ Work report.

While the Coalition implemented some important reforms to prohibit sex-based harassment and broaden the scope of coverage of workplace sexual harassment protections, including covering judges and members of parliament, and to make sexual harassment a valid reason for dismissal; the Coalition actively voted down amendments that would have enacted other key recommendations made by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner in the Respect@Work report, including creating a positive duty for employers to take action to prevent sexual harassment. (View the full analysis here)