Members of the Women in Economics Network today called for financial literacy to be increased, and disputed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan to slash work-from-home options for public servants.
Economists Cherelle Murphy, Leonora Risse and Diana Mousina addressed the National Press Club at 12:30 pm (AEDT) in Canberra today to discuss Australian economics ahead of the upcoming Budget and Federal Election.
Risse said work-from-home options have been on the rise and are fundamental to fuelling gender equality in the home and workforce families, standing up against the Opposition's office mandate plans.
“Working from home has more than doubled from just under 20% to more than 40%, and working from home is a likely contributor to our historically low unemployment rate,” she said.
“For those pushing for a full return to office mandate, here's what the economic evidence says: the best productivity gains come from hybrid arrangements, leveraging the best of both worlds.”
In her speech, Risse also pointed to the gender pay gap lowering and the number of women participating in the labour force reaching an all-time high.
However, she said that more needs to be done to support female-dominated fields and recognise homemakers' role in the economy.
Risse said women need a boost in leadership roles, especially in economics.
“Economics is about decision making, therefore women's economic empowerment is about women being on equal footing with men in decision making,” she said.
“When we created the women in economics network seven years ago, the dominance of men in economic leadership roles was stark.
“In the past three years, we've seen the first women appointed to lead key economic institutions in Australia.”
Despite the need for more women in economics, Mousina said that a barrier to entry is a decline in financial literacy across all demographics, with an even higher proportion of women having a lower financial literacy rate than men.
Mousina said research published by the Reserve Bank of Australia in 2024 found just over 20% of respondents knew the inflation target, with 60% either not knowing or giving “wildly incorrect answers”.
Mousina says the dip in financial literacy can be attributed to the lack of students in both secondary schools and universities studying economics.
“Economics was once the most popular subject outside of maths and English in the early 1990s. Now, Business Studies has taken its place, and economics has fallen to 15th place,” she said.
In terms of the cost of living, Mousina said Australians have experienced a small reprieve due to the average household receiving tax cuts in July of last year. In addition, the Reserve Bank is expected to cut interest rates further.
“Cost of living is, of course, still a challenge for the most vulnerable groups because of the big level adjustment to prices. Inflation has risen by 20% in the last four years, and wages are up by 15%, so it will take some time for real wages to catch up,” she said.
“On our calculations, the average household is better off by an additional $70 a week compared to a year ago from the results of lower inflation, tax cuts and interest rate reductions.”
With the next federal Budget being expected to be handed down soon, Murphy said the Treasury expected the Budget to deteriorate from the $16 billion surplus delivered last year, to a $27 billion deficit.
“Before we are even counting the billions of dollars that we've seen in election promises, federal general government spending is projected to go to $836 billion by the 2028 financial year,” she said.
In terms of tax reform, Murphy suggested starting from scratch, reforming part of the tax system, and creating incentives.
