APRIL 2024

In Melbourne, we are well and truly into Warung Wombat Season now - and we’re feeling the change in chilly mornings and dark nights. Brrr!

In this issue you can watch our International Women’s Day edition of BSL Talks on ‘Counting Women In’; read our latest Life Chances Study report on balancing work, family and parenting; read our response to the Productivity Commission’s draft report on Early Childhood Education and Care; and hear about our participation in panel discussions on ending poverty in Australia and fair electrification for consumers. 

Keep your eye out for our May BSL Talks, the details of which are being finalised. 

You can read more about our current work at www.bsl.org.au/research and also browse our policy submissions. 

Please share this social policy and research update with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe.

BSL TALKS RECORDING: COUNTING WOMEN IN

Our March BSL Talks, on the topic of ‘Counting Women In’ for International Women’s Day, featured an expert panel in discussion. Dr Anne Summers AO, Aradia Sayner, Terese Edwards from Single Mother Families Australia and Dr Margaret Kabare from BSL’s Work and Economic Security research team were chaired by BSL’s Social Policy and Research Director, Dr Nicole Bieske.

The webinar covered systems that can trap women in poverty such as housing affordability, low participation of women in employment, high rates of part-time roles for women, high costs of further education, unpaid caring responsibilities and inadequate government payments. The panel discussed both short and long-term solutions to these problems. 

The speakers acknowledged that while there have been some recent positive steps towards improving systems – like the abolition of the punitive ParentsNext program – much more needs to be done.

Watch/listen to the talk: Counting women in: breaking poverty cycles through economic security

PANEL DISCUSSION: ENDING POVERTY – WHAT WILL IT TAKE? 

In February, Parliamentary Friends of Ending Poverty co-chairs Bridget Archer MP and Alicia Payne MP partnered with BSL to host a panel discussion at Parliament House, Canberra, focusing on how the federal government can make a serious effort to end poverty in Australia.

Our Executive Director Travers McLeod joined leading economist Dr Angela Jackson, BSL’s Principal Research Fellow of Work and Economic Security Dr Dina Bowman and BSL’s SEED Program participant Nytarra Buckley to discuss what it will take to end poverty and make a fairer and more inclusive Australia for all.

Presenting to a full house of federal MPs, Senators and community sector advocates, our panel shared their wide-ranging expertise and lived experience, with the clear message that poverty is a policy choice – and this is where the federal government has an opportunity to create change.

Read more about our advocacy work.

REPORT: FINDING A BALANCE?

Our ongoing Life Chances study began in inner Melbourne in 1990 with 167 babies and their parents. Since then, stages of the study have focused on different issues, from services for young children, to experiences of school and finding a job and to parenting.

Stage 13 of the study explored how the experience of becoming and being a parent affected economic security and financial wellbeing. It provided insights into the influences of gender and policy contexts, including paid parental leave, childcare and the right to flexible work on parents’ decisions about work and care. 

Read the report by Ursula Harrison and Dina Bowman, Finding a balance? Work, family and economic security: insights from parents in the Life Chances study (PDF, 464 KB)

POLICY: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE

We recently responded to the Productivity Commission’s draft report on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Our first submission to this inquiry highlighted the importance of prioritising the needs and voices of children in systemic redesign and reform considerations. We congratulate the Productivity Commission on centring children in this inquiry. BSL agrees that crucial reforms outlined in the draft report to improve access, affordability, inclusion, flexibility and quality depend on urgently addressing workforce challenges. Overcoming this challenge and implementing reforms in these key areas will pave the way towards a universal, consistently high-quality, accessible early years system that can meet the needs of every child in Australia.

Read our submission: Early childhood education and care Submission to the Productivity Commission in response to the draft report (PDF, 329 KB)

PANEL DISCUSSION: BENEFITS AND BARRIERS TO ELECTRIFICATION FOR CONSUMERS

Damian Sullivan, our Principal, Climate Change and Energy, recently participated in a panel session at the 2024 Energy Consumers Australia Foresighting Forum. The forum brought together consumer advocates, government and industry, to consider how they can deliver an energy system that benefits everyone.

In ‘The benefits and barriers to electrification for consumers’, chaired by Deborah Fewster (VCOSS),  Damian, along with Kate Minter (Rewiring Australia) and Evette Smithers (Horizon Power) discussed the challenges and opportunities of electrification. BSL’s Climate Change and Energy teams’ work sits at the intersection of social equity and environmental sustainability and Damian discussed the impact climate change will have on people facing disadvantage including electrifying homes and accessing jobs in the low-carbon economy. 
 
Home electrification is a critical step in Australian moving towards net zero. Done well, electrification can help reduce energy stress, improve affordability and reduce interrelated poverty. However, done poorly, electrification could push people into deeper energy stress and exacerbate the inequalities already present in the energy market. 

Read more about attitudes and barriers to electrification in Enabling electrification: addressing the barriers to moving off gas faced by lower-income households (PDF 1.3 MB) 

BSL LIBRARY: HERE TO HELP

​The Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) is a social justice organisation that works to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia. You are receiving this email as you have previously subscribed to the BSL Social Policy and Research Centre newsletter. To unsubscribe, please click on the link below.