Question to Minister Jenny Macklin, Senators Trish Crossin, Claire Moore, et al: since when did feminism condone compulsory loss of rights for  categories of women, for example a sole parent, because some of them may have needed “protection”?

This paternalistic (maternalistic) policy making undermines the idea that women are full citizens with equal rights. Women who are in need of protection have the right and obligation to decide, maybe collectively, whether they hand over their rights to others. Please don’t use women’s needs as an excuse for bad policy as it sounds a bit like Philip Ruddock wearing his Amnesty badge while persecuting asylum seekers.

Read the report here and the submissions here.

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Taking into account the failure of the Australian Fair Pay Commission to make an adjustment in 2009, WEL has recommended that the Minimum Wage Panel grant an increase of 9 per cent in the minimum wage. Such an increase would help to restore a minimum rate that is fair and bears a reasonable relation to living standards in the wider Australian community.

WEL’s submission focuses on living standards, promoting social inclusion,  and the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value.

WEL’s submission argues for that Government needs to recognise the importance of advocacy among the roles played by organisations in the not-for-profit sector. An extract of the submission follows. The full submission is here.

The history of Australia has been built on the complex involvements of factions, fractions and interest groups that pushed for various reforms and changes, some we still celebrate and some that we may now reject.
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June 18, 2009

WEL is one of 39 organisations that has endorsed a submission newly put to the National Human Rights Consultation currently under way.

The Consultation offers an opportunity to consider not only how, as a society, we treat vulnerable people but also to what extent we are prepared to put in place institutional protections and to eliminate the systemic power imbalances that make people vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment in the first place.
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