Expecting either of the major political parties to ride a white horse into budget night and lay the severed head of the patriarchy at the feet of Australian women is a wildly unrealistic (albeit entertaining) fantasy. It does seem reasonable, however, that the budget should have made some genuine effort at addressing the disproportionate effect COVID has had on women’s economic security.
Sadly, no. And the failure was not in this one budget or even in the Opposition reply, which promised a $6.2 billion boost to childcare subsidies. Governments fail women with the belief that childcare is a “women’s issue” and by reducing women’s economic wellbeing to ideological arguments over how much taxpayers should subsidise our unpaid labour.
