WomenChoices & Welfare to work page
In 2006 the first face-to-face meeting of the four women’s secretariats financed by the Commonwealth Office for Women identified changes to industrial relations legislation, and changes to income support payments for people of working age were likely to be of major importance for women.
A national consultation and research strategy was developed.
NFAW commissioned a study on the impacts of the income security policy changes on single mothers from the National Centre for Economic and Social Modelling at the University of Canberra (NATSEM), and on publication met with Backbench members of the Government. Women with A Disability Australia (WWDA) contributed to a second smaller study analysing the impacts on women with a disability.
Research on the industrial relations changes from Women in Social and Economic Research (WISER) was commissioned jointly by NFAW, WEL, and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The second phase research on the WorkChoices legislation was commissioned from a national group of academic researchers, convened by Dr Barbara Pocock of South Australia.
This was paralleled by national consultations with women’s groups.
The consultation report ‘What Women Want’ was launched in June 2007.
In 2007, the NFAW, together with WEL Australia and YWCA Australia, published the research report Women and WorkChoices: Impacts on the Low Pay Sector. This report showed that WorkChoices wasn’t working for low paid women and their families.