Female start-up founders fume at Porterâs email stuff-up
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Embattled Industry, Science and Technology Minister Christian Porterâs office has been left scrambling to smooth over a funding bungle that left thousands of Australian female entrepreneurs disappointed when they were told they had successfully applied for government grants, only to receive an email hours later retracting the money.
About 1800 business owners were sent a correction email by the Department of Industry, saying their expression of interest application to the Boosting Female Founders Initiative grant was ultimately unsuccessful, despite them receiving a congratulatory acceptance email from Mr Porterâs department six hours earlier.
Australia’s COVID recession hurt women more than men, and not only in job numbers.
With schools and childcare centres closed, many women who remained in paid work had no choice but to take on more unpaid work, effectively working double shifts.
Yet much of the government’s budget response involved high-viz vests and hard hats.
These gender differences would have been apparent to the government if it had run its policy ideas through a “gender lens” – a process that used to be built into the government’s budget decision-making.
Promises of A$1.7 billion in childcare relief in Tuesday’s budget aim to lift women’s workforce involvement, but bigger steps beyond the perfunctory Women’s Economic Security Statement are needed to bring a gender lens to policy design.
Applying a gender lens on the budget is not about pitting women against men theconversation.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theconversation.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Womenâs safety summit to be held in July
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The Morrison government will convene a national summit on womenâs safety in July and is set to include an expanded Womenâs Economic Security Statement in next monthâs budget as it tries to claw back support among female voters.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also poised to release the governmentâs response to the landmark Respect@Work report on Thursday to address sexual harassment in the workplace.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will release the governmentâs response to a report into workplace sexual harassment.Â
Alex Ellinghausen
But Mr Morrison will come under pressure at Fridayâs national cabinet meeting to do more on the female front, with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk calling for a broader summit.