The Sydney Morning Herald 11 September 2014:
Women will bear the brunt of the Abbott government's budget cuts.
New analysis drawing on National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling budget impact models and latest census and Australian Bureau of Statistics data, shows women in low and middle-income households can expect to suffer the biggest financial losses from the Abbott government's budget savings.
And the worst hit – by far – will be women in low-income households.
A single mother in the lowest disposable income group can expect to lose one of every four dollars lost by that group in the budget's aftermath come 2017.
Women in middle-income households will suffer much more than high-income women.
The analysis comes as Prime Minister Tony Abbott released a video on the weekend in which he said one of his government's main motivations in future will be "protecting the vulnerable."
The new slogan marked a deliberate and noticeable change of rhetoric from Mr Abbott's previous public messages, and follows months of criticism that he and his Treasurer, Joe Hockey, have endured for their budget's likely negative impact on poor households…..
A senior economist at the Australia Institute, Matt Grudnoff, said women are, on average, poorer than men in Australia, and the analysis showed the budget would not help matters.
"This budget is reducing gender equality even more. If you look at the pay gap between men and women, it's an issue that's getting worse, not better," Mr Grudnoff said.
Recent figures from Bureau of Statistics show the pay gap between men and women in Australia had widened to 18.2 per cent, up from 17.1 per cent at the start of the year.
Between November 2013 and May 2014, Australian men's salaries increased an average $24.90 per week and women's increased only $7.09.
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