The federal government is standing by its budget response after repeated attacks from the opposition that measures will benefit men more than women.
Critics have raised concerns the recovery plan does not do enough to support the female workforce, claiming it focuses too heavily on male-dominated industries.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists the federal budget delivers for all Australians - as Labor prepares to promise more for women, seniors and people over 35 in its budget reply.
So, does the budget really exclude women and what are the concerns being raised by opponents?
'Not a contest between men and women’
Australia is set to incur a $213 billion deficit, including $74 billion of spending devoted to job creation and an additional $14 billion in infrastructure investment.
But critics are concerned women will be less likely to benefit from many big spending initiatives, such as $1.2 billion towards new apprenticeships and a $1.5 billion boost to manufacturing.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the budget was about bringing together all Australians on the road to economic recovery.
"There will be voices that will try and set young people against older people, women against men, jobs in one sector versus jobs in another sector," he told reporters in Canberra.
"They are the voices of division that will undermine the future economic prosperity of all Australians."
Since March, 200,000 women have lost their jobs and women also make up 47 per cent of JobKeeper recipients.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Source: AAP
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese seized on these concerns during his budget reply speech on Thursday evening, including promising to make affordable child care "universal".
Mr Albanese has accused the government of failing to implement “specific strategies” to respond to the persistent inequalities faced by women.
“What we have of course from this government is a plan for a pink recession and a blue recovery,” he said during a speech about Labor’s Women’s Budget Statement.
“In the budget on Tuesday night, we had 51 per cent of our population left behind, just forgotten.”
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese ahead of his budget reply speech. Source: AAP
Pink recession and a blue recovery?
The government says its budget is for “all Australians”, meaning women will benefit just as much from big spending investments supporting businesses and job creation.
Industry Minister Karen Andrews strongly denied women were being overlooked, saying the criticisms don’t fairly represent the budget response.
“I totally reject the criticism that this budget does not support women,” she told reporters.
“It's just disgraceful to try and pick off women … we are not going to set up a contest between men and women - we are here for all Australians – we are here for all Australians.”
But Grattan Institute economist Danielle Wood said the budget would have benefited from providing more to female-dominated sectors such as aged care, the arts, education and child care.
“They would have created a lot of jobs for women in the way that some of these existing measures just don’t,” she told SBS News.
“Most of the responses that will directly create jobs are in male-dominated sectors, so it doesn’t look like it is addressing the underlying economic fundamentals of this downturn.”
'Complete lack of additional support for childcare'
In his budget reply speech, Mr Albanese announced Labor would direct more than $6 billion into childcare, cutting costs for almost all families and allowing more women to return to work.
Under the plan, the maximum childcare subsidy would be increased to 90 per cent, cutting costs for some 97 per cent of families.
"If I'm prime minister, I will make quality, affordable child care universal," he said.
Despite calls from the sector and the opposition to extend or increase support for child care, the budget included no extra funding for providers, except in Victoria, which will get $314.2 million.
Executive director of the Per Capita think tank - Emma Dawson - said she believed the budget had been a “missed opportunity” to provide more support to women through increased investment in the sector.
“There seems to have been a lack of recognition that women have been particularly badly affected through this recession in terms of their loss of jobs – their loss of hours,” she told SBS News.
“There doesn’t seem to have been any tailored support for women to get back into the workforce most notably, the complete lack of additional support for childcare.”
Education minister Dan Tehan has defended the response saying the government is providing record investment into childcare.
He said funding would grow from $9.2 billion this year to $10 billion over forward estimates.
"The government stands ready to help and assist the childcare sector, as it comes out of this pandemic," he said during question time.
"We stood by the sector throughout the pandemic, providing an additional $900 million to the sector... we're standing with it as we come out of this pandemic."
Minister for Education Dan Tehan during Question Time in Parliament House. Source: AAP
Men set to benefit more from tax cuts
A key platform of the government’s budget response for households was $17.8 billion in personal income tax relief.
But new analysis from the Australia Institute has found that these changes could also “disproportionately” advantage men over women.
According to the progressive think tank, men would receive 3 in every 5 dollars of tax benefit in this financial year and then 7 in every $10 from next year onwards.
“First we’ve seen jobs for the boys, in the form of spending in male dominated industries such as construction, and now women are being left behind with the Government’s tax plan for the wealthy,” said Matt Grudnoff, senior economist at The Australia Institute.
Mr Morrison said the tax system didn't discrimination on the basis of gender.
"The tax system does not discriminate based on your gender, it doesn't discriminate based on your age. It doesn't discriminate on any of those things that go to who you are," he told question time.
"It brings forward the opportunity for Australians to keep more of what they earn... we are bringing those tax cuts forward to ensure Australians have the help they need right here, right now."
'Women's economic security statement'
The federal budget also sets aside $240 million to boost women's participation in the workplace, but the government argues it’s wrong to simply is response for women to this investment.
The package includes $25.1 million to go towards new cadetships and apprenticeships for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and other male-dominated industries.
Meanwhile $50 million will go towards expanding grants for women's development and leadership and establish a council to fight sexual harassment in the workplace.
However, while the measures have been supported - the amount of funding directed to the response has been questioned.
“It is not going to do a lot to address the really system issues that limit women’s choices and limit women’s opportunities,” Per Capita executive director Ms Dawson said.
At least 60 per cent of the 485,000 jobs created since May had been filled by women, according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s budget speech.
Additional reporting AAP
