Jenny Long, Sydney
In the NSW "minibudget" brought down by NSW Labor Treasurer Michael Egan on March 30, it was announced that the NSW Department for Women (DFW) would be abolished and responsibility for its programs would be transferred to the NSW premier's department.
This move was condemned by the April 13 Central Council meeting of the Public Service Association (PSA), which covers DFW workers. The PSA's women's council has organised a letter writing protest campaign.
In the last week of April, the NSW Coalition for Women was set up at a state parliament house meeting involving a range of unions and women's organisations, including the NSW Greens.
But at the next meeting on May 6, Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon and her adviser Cate Faehrmann, both PSA members, were excluded from the coalition on the grounds that the ALP minister for women had decreed that only ALP-friendly organisations could participate.
Women's programs have been savaged in NSW. The plan is to cut the $5.7 million DFW budget by $2.5 million in the first year, and a further $1.4 million in the second year. The remaining $1.7 million, given to the office for women in the premier's department, will ensure the office is purely token.
Faehrmann attended the first meeting of the NSW Coalition for Women on behalf of Lee Rhiannon and the Greens. The initial meeting included representatives of the United Services Union, the Women's Electoral Lobby, the Labor Council, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, the PSA, the Finance Sector Union, the Australian Services Union, the NSW Teachers Federation and the Nurses Association and representatives from Labor MLCs.
According to Faehrmann, it was decided that a tight seven-week campaign be run in the lead up to the state budget, focusing on what services and programs mustn't be lost. The meeting also decided to draw up a list of demands that all groups supporting women's issues could sign on to. It was also agreed that the next meeting would take place in a week.
When Faehrmann and Rhiannon went to the next meeting of the coalition, they were asked to leave before the meeting began, because the "politics between Labor and the Greens would threaten what the group was trying to achieve". Incredibly, says Faehrmann, they learned that this directive came from the minister for women, Sandra Nori. "Somebody is incredibly scared of the Greens it would seem!"
Faehrmann said that the first meeting clearly wasn't a meeting of Labor MPs and union reps and that other women's groups and feminists were invited. "I'd responded to several enquiries during the week from women representing organisations who were very enthusiastic about the news that a Coalition had formed and asked if they could be included.
"I phoned the organiser of the coalition to see if this would be okay and she said as long as people were clear of the tight focus the coalition was taking (specifically the abolition of DFW) that would be fine. To my knowledge no other group's been excluded from this except the Greens!"
The Greens are now asking what kind of outcomes a group that excludes opponents of the ruling government can achieve. "Could it all be a front to make the government appear like it's addressing women's concerns [by announcing] the retention of some of the services the 'Coalition' was lobbying for? Happy outcomes for all - except women."
PSA women's councillors were also outraged to hear of this attempt to restrict the campaign. Joan O'Dwyer, a central councillor and member of the Progressive PSA rank-and-file group told GLW that she could not believe that the opportunities for community campaigning through Greens' networks were being refused.
[Jenny Long is a member of the PSA and of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 26, 2004.
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