Anne Summers believes there’s one thing missing from the corridors of power in Canberra: a powerful lobbying group for women.
She sees such a group as being particularly useful on Budget day, joining the likes of influential organisations such as the Minerals Council of Australia and National Farmers’ Federation in entering the Budget lock-up, trawling through the papers, and preparing to front journalists on pushing the interests of women in budget-related media coverage.
“We need a strong and effective women’s lobby,” she said during her opening address at the YWCA’s She Leads conference in Canberra on Tuesday. “Why should it just be the miners and farmers who have powerful lobbies in Canberra?”
“All the lobbyists will be lined up outside Parliament House, they’ll each give their take on the budget, but who will be doing it for women?”
Summers believes such a group should be modelled on an existing powerful lobbying group, independent of government funding and full of paid representatives. Indeed she joked it could even have an expensive office building on National Circle in Canberra, with views of the hill.
“That’s not to put down some of the effective lobbying that’s been done by some very great women but I think in addition to that behind-the-scenes lobbying we need a powerful presence to ensue we’re treated more seriously than we are currently,” she said.
The Minerals Council has 39 staff and an income of $58 million over the last two years according to its recent annual report — enough to leverage some significant and powerful PR work for the mining companies it represents.
While there is no such women’s group with those kind of resources, there are number of united fronts pulling together different perspectives to offer policy advice to government. The National Women’s Alliance is one such example, bringing together six different groups. The Coalition for Working Women is also leading on some significant work, such as its recent push to halt a proposed roll-back of gender reporting requirements.
Meanwhile, a number of organisations entered the industry Budget lock-up yesterday to trawl through the budget papers through a gender specific lens including the Early Childhood Association and the Australian Council of Social Service. In particular, a group of six women representing the YWCA, Equality Rights Alliance, Women’s a electoral Lobby and AWCCI sat together dissecting the various budget documents, working to see how women might be affected.
YWCA CEO Dr Caroline Lambert told me this group was keen to nitpick through the specifics on violence against women allowances, cuts to overseas development assistance, the full impact of Medicare cuts, and it’s suite of workplace equality initiatives such as the full details on paid parental leave.
While those representing women’s interests in the industry budget lock-up were not all necessarily paid employees, didn’t have an umbrella name, nor the expensive Canberra office, they did have strong intentions for picking through the papers and being available to journalists to share the realities for women in different circumstances.