SENATOR CAROL BROWN

SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR FAMILIES

AND PAYMENTS
SENATOR FOR TASMANIA

OPINION PIECE

WOMEN WILL CARRY THE BIGGEST LOAD

The first Budget of our so-called Prime Minister for Women fails the women of
Australia.

It will be devastating for women on low and middle incomes.

Many of the key savings measures in this budget will have a disproportionate impact
on women, particularly those who are already vulnerable and disadvantaged.

The numerous calls and emails to my office have been predominantly from women.
They include pensioners, students, single parents, and even some women who say
they are well off but despairing of a budget that disproportionately attacks women,
families, the poor and the vulnerable.

We know that cuts to family payments will have a greater impact on women because
ABS figures show that 87 per cent of one-parent families with children under 15 are
single mothers.

Economic modelling agency, NATSEM, found that for families with children, the
budget burden is 15 times larger for those in the bottom fifth than those in the top
fifth.

A single mother with two children wrote to me that the scrapping of the Family Tax
Benefit B would cost her $100 a fortnight. That may not seem much to many, to
me it is survival, she wrote.

She has a job but believes she wont be able to afford to pay her rent and has given
up on ever being able to afford to provide her child with the braces for her teeth
that she needs.

We know that cuts to pensions will disproportionately affect women who account for
55 per cent of all age pensioners, with 70 per cent of all single age pensioners being
women and 69 per cent of people receiving a carers payment are women.

The $7 GP tax will also hit women harder because they account for 60 per cent of all
visits to the doctor.

I was called by a pensioner extremely worried about the $7 GP tax and the rise in
the cost of prescriptions.

She recently visited her GP and had blood tests, an ultrasound and repeat tests after
abnormalities were identified. She said she would have had to pay $42 in a fortnight.
I would not have spent the $42 on beer or cigarettes it would probably go towards
my power bill or food. I am more worried that children will not receive the medical
care they need because some parents must decide between food or medical
treatment, she wrote.

An analysis by the National Tertiary Education Union found that women will suffer
disproportionately because of the Budget initiative to apply real interest to student
debts for the first time.

The delay to the superannuation guarantee also will have a bigger impact on women
whose average superannuation payout is half that received by men.

This budget does nothing to support the economic security and participation of
women in our community. It cuts legal services that support women escaping
violence, it cuts funding that supports womens participation in leadership roles, and
it strikes at the cost of living of Australian families.

As one woman wrote: This Budget is rotten to the core.

This opinion piece was first published in The Mercury on Thursday the 29
th
of May
2014.

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