Ching! Ching! Can you hear it? The promise of cash flowing to women?
It’s budget day in an election year and you can bet that women across Australia are about to be offered money. Some hastily cobbled together financial incentive to sway the women’s vote.
This is how it was with the Baby Bonus, paid parental leave and the promise of fully subsidised nannies. All policies affecting the hip pocket of Australian women, all pledged just before an election.
But women’s economic needs demand more frequent and intense intervention than an election cycle can deliver: so problematic is our lot, we literally cannot afford to wait every three years for election eve scraps.
We need a gender responsive budget, a gender responsive treasury and we need it yesterday.
