The NSW Opposition has called on the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government to #PressForProgess on women’s issues, this International Women’s Day. The Government is currently running up to two years behind on legislation, strategies and policies to achieve gender equity across a number of portfolios. There are a number of key failures of the Berejiklian Government in developing a comprehensive strategy to improve gender parity:
-
Implementing a NSW Sexual Assault Strategy which was announced on 14 October 2015 - still unreleased;
-
Changing the Residential Tenancies Act to protect victims of domestic violence from being penalised for property damage or rental debt caused by a violent partner announced on 5 July 2016 – still no legislation;
-
Commencing community consultation workshops for NSW Women’s Strategy due for release by December 2017 – still unreleased; and
-
The NSW Government cut funding to women’s refuges by $20 million in 2014 seeing refuges closed or transferred to faith based organisations across the state.
Labor pointed to the Government’s release earlier this week of a two page infographic Then and Now: A Celebration of Women’s Achievements in NSW as further evidence of a lack of commitment to women in NSW. In previous years, extensive reports on the participation of women have been released, but the headline statistic on the Then and Now report was the increase of the number of women in Parliament from 1973 to 2015. A Foley Labor Government has promised a whole of Government approach to ensuring gender parity by moving Women NSW back to the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Under the Liberal-Nationals the office of Women NSW has shifted to the Department of Health and then to the Department of Family and Community Services. The Opposition has released a video showing a number of Shadow Ministers from key portfolios outlining positive policies to #PressForProgress for Women in NSW to celebrate International Women’s Day. The video can be seen here.
