As part of our advocacy work, YWCA Canberra makes submissions to the ACT Legislative Assembly, Australian Parliament and a number of statutory and regulatory authorities on issues that affect women and girls in Canberra, as well as people who use our services. Our submissions are also reinforced by lobbying and broader public messaging.
Recent submission documents are available for download below:
YWCA Canberra welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Inquiry into Sexual Assault Reform Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As a longstanding provider of services for women and girls, including domestic violence support services and advocates for their collective wellbeing and safety, we are committed to seeing progressive legislative and social reform that facilitates their unencumbered access to both justice and front-line justice support.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the ACT Government’s Budget consultation process aligns with our longstanding priorities on gender-responsive budgeting, affordable and safe housing and violence against women. As a member of Children’s First Alliance, we also support greater investment in early learning to improve access and service sustainability and to value the work of early educators.
Housing in Canberra is beyond crisis. Shortages in supply exist across the spectrum. The forces behind these supply shortages are varied and not all within the remit of the ACT Government or Planning Authority, but the consequences of this undersupply on cost, vacancy rates, public expenditure on peripheral housing support services and overall community wellbeing is immense. In the interests of achieving the objectives of the ACT Housing Strategy and continuing the narrative of a city grounded on values of inclusion and fairness, YWCA Canberra argues that the new Planning Bill must accommodate additional limits on third party appeals and cautiously consider the implications of an ‘outcomes focussed’ approach. We also offer insight into the declaration of Territory Priority Projects.
As a provider of community and social housing and homelessness support services in Canberra, we made a submission to the review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. Our submission highlights the system wide blockages in housing across all tenancy types and calls for the development of a national housing strategy. We also recommend removing legacy issues such as the per-capita funding model, and inflexible eligibility requirements that do not account for the dynamic ways many people become homeless in Australia and which preclude some of the most vulnerable homeless from accessing support.
As a registered Community Housing Organisation, we made a submission to the community consultation on energy efficiencies in rental properties. Our submission notes that renters are typically locked out of government subsidies to boost home energy efficiency and that for many renters, the costs of cooling or heating poorly sealed and uninsulated homes can be prohibitive. We list a number of recommendations that should be adopted by government in rolling out an insulation standard for rental properties
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the review of the Australian Curriculum Foundation – Year 10, highlights the role schools, school administrators and teaching staff play in eliminating violence against women and children. Our submission also recognises that consent education, protective behaviours and awareness of harmful gender norms and practices have a significant role to play in a violence-free future.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the ACT Government’s Budget consultation process aligns with our longstanding priorities on gender-responsive budgeting, affordable and safe housing and violence against women. As a member of Children’s First Alliance, we also support greater investment in early learning to improve access and service sustainability and to value the work of early educators.
As the ACT’s only WGEA Employer of Choice citation holder, we proudly make this submission on the review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. Our submission emphasises improvements to the Act that will broaden the scope of ‘relevant employers’, lift incentive frameworks, and improve the objects of the Act. We also recommend that reporting and transparency on gender-based harassment and discrimination be substantively incorporated in the Gender Equality Indicators.
YWCA Canberra was invited to provide comment on the proposed amendment to the Crimes Act 1900 (stealthing). In contributing to feedback on this potential amendment we conducted a survey of our community members aged 16-24 to understand their awareness of stealthing and exposure to consent education.
Read our contribution to the proposed amendment.
YWCA Canberra provides early learning services to more than 2000 children each week including children with disability and their parents and carers.
This submission presents YWCA Canberra’s reflections on how the standards affect both the inclusion of children with disabilities in early learning centres and parental expectations into the future and also illustrate how the standards operate in school aged care settings. We offer recommendations that address services in both these settings as well as administrative improvements.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the ACT Budget 2020-2021 aligns with our submission to the ACT Budget 2019-2020 and the priorities outlined in our flagship document Leading the Change: a pathway to gender equality report.
Recommendations made in this Budget submission fall under the following core priority areas: gender-responsive budgeting and governance, building safe and affordable housing for women, a life free from violence, and equality in the workplace.
Read our submission to the ACT Budget 2020-2021.
In making this submission, YWCA Canberra responds only to the policy response of ‘fee-free’ services as underpinned by the JobKeeper payment and the subsequent top-up relief package.
Our submission outlines how these two important policy levers (JobKeeper and ‘fee-free’ service) have intersected in a way that threatens provider sustainability in the long-term and if left uncorrected will become exacerbated as parents begin to return to work. We also offer brief discussion points on how early childhood education is valued and funded.
YWCA Canberra is one of more than 100 peak bodies and community practitioners working to prevent gender-based violence which have signed a joint rejecting the legitimacy of the Government’s Family Law Inquiry. We are of the belief this Inquiry is unnecessary and this submission, in part, reiterates this point.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the ACT Budget 2019-2020 reflects the priorities outlined in our Leading the Change; a pathway to gender equality report.
Recommendations made in this Budget submission fall under the following core priority areas: gender-responsive budgeting, building safe and affordable housing for women, developing intersectional service models for housing, a life free from violence, equality in the workplace and girls and women thriving.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the Australian Human Rights Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces focused on how some of the workplace challenges faced by women have been reinforced by longstanding imbalances in the distribution of domestic labour and that these challenges have continued to multiply in the absence of workplace leadership and diversity. Without diversity at the highest levels of leadership, respondents indicated that “boys’ clubs” for senior managers had taken hold and it became difficult to voice legitimate concerns. Because the survey respondents shared their experiences and recommendations so openly, we were also able to explore some of the factors influencing women’s decision making in the workplace and the importance of transparency and objectivity in formal workplace roles.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the 2018-19 ACT Government Budget Consultation Process, outlines areas where immediate action can be taken to achieve a greater social impact within current budget allocations, as well as areas where a modest additional investment can result in significant benefits to the community.
This submission also outlines the practical steps that the ACT Government can make to increase the economic participation of all Canberrans, and ensure our most vulnerable community members are not left behind.
Recommendations made in this Budget Submission are provided under the four key areas of gender equality, early education and care, safe and affordable housing, and supporting young people in need.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the ACT Greens’ proposed legislative changes in relation to the definition of consent in sexual violence laws outlines our support for the inclusion of a positive definition of consent, based on the concept of free and voluntary agreement, in the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT).
In responding to the ACT Greens discussion paper on the proposed legislative changes, this submission focuses on three key issues. Firstly, the positive definition of consent defined as a free and voluntary agreement, secondly, how the consent provision may impact on diverse and vulnerable groups of women and finally, the importance of public education campaigns in supporting legislative changes.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the Ministerial Housing Choices discussion paper outlines our support for housing models which address the multiple housing needs of women, and emphasises the need for urban and housing planning to adopt a gendered lens to address the specific needs of all women, and in particular, those fleeing domestic and family violence.
In this submission, we are calling for the development and implementation of innovative housing models in the ACT which leverage private investment for the provision of affordable rental housing, and calling on the ACT Government to support ACT registered community housing organisations to provide affordable rental properties. We have emphasised the need for government to undertake consultations with diverse groups of women to ensure their views are considered in implementing housing policy.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to Justice and Community Safety (JACS) Crimes (Consent) Amendment Bill 2018 supports the change to a positive definition of consent, arguing it would be a progressive step forward for gender equality in the ACT and set a benchmark for appropriate sexual behaviour. We also argue that any legislative reform must be reinforced with education-based campaigns aimed at encouraging respectful relationships amongst peers.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the 2017-18 ACT Government Budget Consultation Process, outlines areas where immediate action can be taken to achieve a greater social impact within current budget allocations, as well as areas where a modest additional investment can result in significant benefits to the community.
This submission also outlines the practical steps that the ACT Government can make to increase the economic participation of all Canberrans, and ensure our most vulnerable community members are not left behind.
Recommendations made in this Budget Submission are provided under the four key areas of gender equality, early education and care, safe and affordable housing, and supporting young people in need. The fourth priority area of supporting young people in need has been developed in partnership with Marymead Child & Family Centre.
YWCA Canberra’s submission on the Invasion of Privacy & Technology- Facilitated Abuse outlines nine key recommendations and highlights a number of immediate actions. This is in response to the ACT Greens’ proposal to reform ACT’s criminal law to address the evolving issue of non-consensual sharing of images and technology-facilitated abuse, and improve the safety, wellbeing and protection of young people in the ACT.
YWCA Canberra’s submission to the 2017 ACT Government Housing Strategy, outlines that appropriate, affordable and stable housing is essential to the well being of both individuals and the community. However, for low and moderate income earners in the ACT, there are high levels of unmet demand for housing that is affordable and appropriate.
This submission also outlines that given the gendered nature of housing stress and homelessness in the ACT, it is crucial that any new strategy must explicitly address women’s needs and circumstances.
In our submission to the ACT Budget for 2016-17, YWCA Canberra strongly advocated for the ACT Government to:
In our submission to the ACT Budget for 2015-16, YWCA Canberra strongly advocated for funding for primary violence prevention in ACT schools. In addition, our other key priority areas were housing affordability and homelessness and therapeutic services for young people and their family.
YWCA Canberra was invited to present at a public hearing for the budget estimates, where we strongly advocated for adequate funding to be allocated to the priority areas outlined above. Read a transcript of the hearing.
In our submission to the DSS regarding its Nanny Pilot Program, due to begin in January 2016, YWCA Canberra is supportive of efforts by the Australian Government in making early childhood education and care more flexible and more accessible to parents, especially those in remote and rural communities, or who require services outside regular working hours.
However, we have seriously questioned the financial viability of the proposed pilot scheme, particularly as the program guidelines do not address the issue of penalty and over-time rates for nannies. We also believe the service provider fee has been set far too low for providers to adequately pay wages, ensure adequate training, and absorb all administration costs, plus more.
Our submission also addresses issues around duty of care and the lack of an educational component to the care model being proposed.
YWCA Canberra made a public submission to the inquiry regarding the Australian Government Boards (Gender Balanced Representation) Bill 2015. The Private Member’s Bill, introduced by Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon, seeks to legislate 40 per cent representation by women on all Government Boards. The Bill includes a requirement for annual reporting to Parliament on the gender composition of Government Boards.
The Gillard Government introduced a 40 per cent target of women on Government Boards, but since then the number of women on Government Boards has actually decreased.
YWCA Canberra’s submission fully endorses the Bill, saying the time for a ‘softly, softly’ approach on promoting gender diversity has passed. We believe this is the time for the Australian Government to take a stand and legislate to force cultural change.
Our submission to the ACT Budget for 2014-15 aimed to ensure that the needs of women and girls in the ACT were addressed within the Budget, and that important services and program areas were highlighted to the Government.
Some of our priority areas outlined in our Budget submission were housing affordability and homelessness; therapeutic services for young people and their families; respectful relationships education for young people; and adequate subsidies to support children with special needs to access mainstream school age care programs.
YWCA Canberra was invited to present at a public hearing for the budget estimates, where we strongly advocated for adequate funding to be allocated to the priority areas outlined above. Read a transcript of the hearing.
Read our full submission to the ACT Budget for 2014-15.
In our submission to the 2013-14 ACT Budget, YWCA Canberra’s key priority areas were housing affordability; youth engagement services; eliminating violence against women; inclusive child-care services; and better support for women’s leadership initiatives.
Read our full submission to the 2013-14 ACT Budget.
In our submission to the 2012-13 ACT Budget, YWCA Canberra’s key priority areas included safe and affordable housing with a focus on women experiencing homelessness; eliminating violence against women; a sustainable community sector; better pathways for women into leadership roles; and youth engagement and children’s services.
YWCA Canberra strongly believes in the importance of recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian Constitution as the first Australians and traditional custodians of our lands. The values that sit behind proposals for constitutional recognition – respect, fairness, equity, diversity and empowerment – reflect the values that guide and inspire the work of YWCA Canberra and our approach to reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Supporting and participating in the campaign to reform the Australian Constitution to include recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s first peoples is an identified action under our new Reconciliation Action Plan, available for download here. Our submission on Constitutional Recognition represents one aspect of this commitment.