Crikey

The Greens and secular organisations have revived calls to remove the financial reporting exemptions given to thousands of religious charities, suggesting that scrapping them would enhance public trust in light of new research into their activities and wealth. No arguments put forward by Catholic and Anglican churches five years ago …

Last week, two-thirds of the way through a horror year in terms of femicides — 44 women have allegedly been killed by violence in Australia so far this year — the Albanese government launched the first so-called action plan of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women 2022-2032.

Last week, the Senate inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia convened three days of public hearings. “I’m just absolutely appalled by what I’ve heard, and I think people need to be held accountable,” said Liberal Senator Paul Scarr, the inquiry’s chair. “There needs to be fundamental …

This month marked a major win for reproductive healthcare in Australia. The Therapeutic Goods Administration finally made it easier to access abortion pills by following expert advice and allowing doctors and pharmacists without specialist certification to prescribe MS-2 Step, also known as RU486. It has been a long, slow road …

Nearly six years after the #MeToo movement arrived in Australia, and more than a decade after the launch of the first national plan to reduce violence against women, those who witnessed the scenes in Parliament last week — and read the media coverage that spurred it — could be forgiven …

Amid the unedifying displays in Canberra last week, as the Liberal Party relentlessly pursued Minister for Women Katy Gallagher in the Senate, drawing on Brittany Higgins’ leaked text messages in order to claim Gallagher and her colleagues actively conspired with Higgins to “weaponise” her rape allegation — and then engaged …

Alert! Alert all the care feminists out there (and I dearly hope we are growing in number). You may have missed a very important announcement this week. But first, for the uninitiated, here’s what I mean when I talk about “care feminism”.

The Albanese government wants you to believe this is its budget “for women”. It isn’t. “Labor is backing Australian women with the most significant single-year investment in women’s equality in at least the last 40 years,” tweeted Minister for Finance and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher. “Because equality for women …

When I read the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce’s (WEET) pre-budget recommendations and the accompanying letter addressed to Minister for Women Katy Gallagher, both published earlier this week, I was struck — and deeply impressed — by how bold they were.

Recently the University of Melbourne’s relatively new Work Futures research initiative launched its first report, which looked at the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 in the workplace. Researchers asked a simple question: how are Australian workers faring into the COVID-19 recovery? The short answer is: not great, especially if you’re a …

Australia has reached a landmark moment in the battle to close the gender pay gap, one I’ve been waiting years for.

Last Wednesday, amid the myriad corporate bluster filling my inbox attempting to align anything and everything with International Women’s Day (IWD), I received a press release that took my breath away. The Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) proudly announced that Visit Saudi was the official sponsor of its “sell-out” …

In April last year, a 56-year-old-New Zealand man, Michael Cruickshank, was sentenced to one year in prison for threatening to kill then prime minister Jacinda Ardern. In one email, Cruickshank threatened to “personally wipe [her] off this fucking planet”. In another, he said he would “blow her head off”. Over …

On the first day of December last year, I went for my usual walk around the local park to find a scene that has become devastatingly common in Australia. The night before, police had descended on a house overlooking the park where a 51-year-old woman was found dead in her …

Two reports came out this week that have me thinking more deeply about the Liberal Party’s “woman problem”. I’m looking at the questions put to party stalwarts as they review their spectacular wipe-out at the last election — and those that weren’t asked.

Unless employers, such as the ABC, are honest about their pay structures, female employees will continue to suffer wage discrimination.

As a one-time "promiscuously” educated young woman who is now an “older and wiser”, married, home-owning mother of two, I suddenly find myself of great interest to the Liberal Party, in particular the head of its aligned think tank, the Menzies Research Centre. The Australian columnist Nick Cater and I …

An edited extract from Kristine Ziwica's new book Leaning Out looks at the long history of the gender pay gap and the steps taken to close it.

Most days, Peter Holmes can be found scouring the streets of Orange to fill the pages of the smallest newspaper in Australia. “I spend a lot of time driving around town getting yarns,” he says from the city of 42,000 in the Central West of New South Wales. “I look …

The pandemic exposed the myth of 'leaning in' as a gender equaliser. It's time we created a new deal for women.

Autumn days in Melbourne can be glorious. This isn’t one of them. It’s damp and dismal, and early voters struggle to find a park at the Holy Family Parish Catholic church in suburban Mount Waverley. They arrive in a steady stream, striding purposefully through the clutch of primary-coloured volunteers handing …

In this election series, Crikey teams up with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism to delve into the heart of federal marginal seat Chisholm, in south-east Melbourne, to see what people are thinking about in the lead-up to the poll. Find more of the series here. He may …

In this election series, Crikey teams up with the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism to delve into the heart of federal marginal seat Chisholm, in south-east Melbourne, to see what people are thinking about in the lead-up to the poll. Find more of the series here. Instead of …

The battle for the key Melbourne seat is starting to heat up.

In Ukraine, one question looms above all: how will it end? In major Russian cities, protesters have bravely taken to the streets in defiance of armed police. People power has a special tradition in Russia, not only in the Bolshevik revolution but the Soviet collapse and, in its wake, the …

Women affected by domestic violence should have access to all the social support they require. Visa status shouldn't get in the way of that. Anjali* had to make a terrifyingly quick decision in 2016 when her husband held a broken glass and threatened to kill her.

When Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced free childcare in April he acknowledged it was a “vital” service for families during an “unsettling time”. Accessing and paying for childcare during the pandemic has not disappeared for parents despite the government’s inexplicable decision to withdraw free childcare and end support payments for …

Childcare workers in Victoria fear dodgy operators will pocket pandemic subsidies and rip off casual staff. Last month the federal government ended its free childcare scheme, under which parents paid no fees and the government paid childcare centres 50% of the hourly rate cap. Education minister Dan Tehan says the …

Crikey invited journalists Jacqueline Maley, Gina Rushton and Inq's Georgia Wilkins to discuss whether Australia is likely to see more Me Too stories emerge. The Me Too movement has uncovered horrific tales and outed high-profile abusers. With survivors feeling more confident to come forward, how should journalists cover these stories …

Reproductive health and abortion providers say they are preparing for a 'shadow pandemic' following a wave of unintended pregnancies during the world's lockdowns. A heavily pregnant 19-year-old with high blood pressure lost her baby and went partially blind after she was turned away from a Port Moresby hospital in April, …