Tasmanian budget’s lack of gender lens questioned by state MLCs

Brinley Duggan |Advocate | 30 August 2021  

Last week’s state budget has come under fire for its lack of a gender impact statement, something that has long been called for.

A gender impact statement would raise awareness about the impact of the budget on women and men, and other gender groups, and was implemented in May’s federal budget.

The federal government’s decision to include the practice, by way of a women’s budget statement, was largely lauded as a positive step.

But the latest Tasmanian budget lacked the statement, and independent MLCs Ruth Forrest and Meg Webb say without it, disadvantage ran rampant.

“Without a gender impact statement you don’t consider all the impacts, and that works in multiple ways,” Ms Forrest said.

“Look at mental health and suicide, the rate of men’s suicide is frightening and it’s important that is addressed specifically for men as well.”

Ms Webb said a statement was necessary for Premier Peter Gutwein to show he was “serious about delivering positive change”.

“When it comes to understanding issues, designing policy solutions and choosing how we fund those solutions, we need to build-in a process that basically asks ‘what are the gender-related impacts to consider?’,” she said.

Gender impact statements are not a new concept. As far back as 1984 the idea permeated the federal budget, leading to considerations of women being specifically discussed.

Ms Forrest said the Tasmanian government was starting to drag its heels regarding the common process.

“It’s not anything extraordinary,” she said.

“Other jurisdictions are doing it, and they’re doing it federally. It just needs to become part of the normal way of doing things.”

While the choice seemed a simple one for Ms Forrest and Ms Webb, a question of whether the government was capable of implementing the gender lens was raised.

“A lot of MPs will blink blankly when you talk about this, like ‘of course women were thought about’, but that’s not the point,” Ms Forrest said.

“There’s plenty of data that shows women’s outcomes have been compromised because the policies driving them have been developed and worked on by men. [A gender impact statement] can show clearly what consideration has been given to men, women, and even non binary people.

I suspect they don’t have the expertise in the government to do it, and that needs to be owned if that’s the case.

In the eight month of a year where a prevailing discussion was dominated by a movement towards the inclusion of women in policy decisions, Ms Forrest said she thought the timing was right for the Tasmanian government to make the step to include the statement.

Ms Webb said there was no need for any further delay in the government taking the action.

“It’s well past time that we stop being piecemeal and tokenistic about addressing gender equity issues, and show commitment to change things at a structural level. The government are in a position to show real leadership here, beyond just lip service,” she said.

“The longer we delay, the longer Tasmanian women and girls will face structural barriers to equity.”

A spokesperson said the government was “committed to creating opportunities for all Tasmanians, regardless of background, circumstances or gender”.

“We are committed to removing barriers to participation whether they exist in education, business, sport or elsewhere … Our focus is on building a more diverse and resilient economy, supporting growth across more industries that provide opportunity for Tasmanians.”

When asked whether the state government had considered implementing a gender impact statement for the budget a spokesperson did not directly answer.

They also did not directly answer whether or not the government had the expertise to do so, or whether there was a need to implement the practice going forward.

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