The Social Policy Group, auspicing Harmony Alliance, welcomes the opportunity to submit a response to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024. Our submission calls out what are good inclusions in the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, but also share considerations for inclusion to strengthen existing offences for urging force or violence and create new offences for threatening force or violence against targeted groups or members of groups.
The Social Policy Group, auspicing Harmony Alliance, welcomes the opportunity to submit a response to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ public consultation on introducing mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings. This submission draws on the insights from our consultations with migrant and refugee women, who expressed deep concerns about the rapid deployment and take up of AI in Australia and globally, and its potential to exacerbate existing inequalities.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to submit a response to the Attorney General’s Department regarding the consultation on Enhancing Civil Protections and Remedies for Forced Marriage. The submission focuses on the unique challenges faced by migrant and refugee women, young women, and girls, and provides recommendations to ensure their voices and experiences are prioritised in the development of enhanced protections.
This report presents the findings of research on migrant and refugee women’s attitudes about, experiences of and responses to workplace sexual
harassment. This research is the first comprehensive study of these issues nationally and internationally. It marks an important shift in undertaking comprehensive research that captures women’s experiences of safety in the workplace.
This study deeply explores the challenges faced by Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) women and girls with disabilities (WGwD) in accessing vital support systems. Investigating gender, disability, race, ethnicity, culture, language, visa, and citizenship status intersections, we shed light on barriers within Australia's health and disability sectors. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, our findings shed light on its impact, providing crucial insights and recommendations to foster equity and inclusivity.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Multicultural
Framework Review. The submission addresses key issues within Australian policies and
systems from a gender perspective. It proposes solutions with a focus on the impacts on
migrant and refugee women’s experiences and outcomes in Australia.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade on the International Gender Equality Strategy.
Harmony Alliance and inTouch are working to empower and raise the voices of migrant and refugee women in Australia. Harmony Alliance is a member driven organisation that provides a platform for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds to advocate on issues by combining grass roots participation and strong community voices with institutional research and strong policy advocacy.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Care and Support
Economy Taskforce on the Draft National Strategy for the Care and Support Economy (the
Strategy). The Strategy brings an opportunity to build a responsive care and support economy
for all Australians.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s Inquiry into the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill 2022 (the Bill).
Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the 2022-23 pre-budget consultation. This submission outlines a range of proposed measures to ensure women from migrant and refugee backgrounds are adequately included in the 2022-23 budget and its recovery measures. Harmony Alliance held a series of consultations with its members to inform the recommendations in this submission.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the inquiry into social media and online safety. The inquiry is timely, coming as it does at a time when governments, civil society and individuals around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the negative impacts social media can have on individuals and society and the growing recognition that action is required to mitigate these harms.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards. Considering that the current federal parliament is the most diverse in Australia's history - both in terms of gender and diverse heritage - it is necessary to develop a code of conduct that ensures safety and inclusion for all.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to inform a comprehensive review of Australia's migration system. A Migration System for Australia's Future. This submission addresses the current issues and proposed solutions within the current Australian migration system from a gender perspective and with a focus on the impacts on migrant and refugee women's experiences of migration in Australia.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Employment White Paper. This submission summarises the relevant issues and barriers face by migrant and refugee women and considers how to overcome them. Unlocking the potential of migrant and refugee women will benefit workforce diversity and productivity, and the Australian economy more broadly.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission in response to the Australian Skills Guarantee Discussion Paper.
This submission seeks to provide key design considerations and potential initiatives to support migrant and refugee women to successfully enter and advance in the Australian workforce.
In our submission to the second consultation on the Religious Discrimination Bill, we urged the Government to remove the section giving precedence to health practitioners’ religious beliefs over women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care.1 We welcome the removal of section 8(6)2 in the previous draft, which would have had detrimental effects on migrant and refugee women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care.
Harmony Alliance welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to this targeted review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Workplace Gender Equality Act) and how this may lead to promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces for migrant and refugee women.
This paper is based on our research with police jurisdictions across Australia to understand systems and processes in place to facilitate culturally appropriate and gender responsive engagement with migrant and refugee women. The aim of the paper is to scope good practice, highlight challenges faced by police in facilitating culturally and gender responsive engagement, and consider approaches towards enhanced experiences for migrant and refugee women across Australia.
Many women can feel overwhelmed and anxious when going to court for the first time. To help you with your court experience, this e-guide provides basic information on what to expect when going to the Magistrates’ Court, including tips for getting ready for court, arriving at court, and what to do when in the courtroom.
In this joint submission by Harmony Alliance, inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence and Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, we highlight concerns of migrant and refugee women regarding the partner visa reforms and potential negative consequences of the proposed English language requirement and new sponsorship framework for the partner visa program.
Based on our national consultations, this report presents key issues faced by migrant and refugee women in the context of the pandemic, their resilience and leadership in dealing with the impacts of COVID-19, and essential considerations for policy responses to ensure equitable outcomes for migrant and refugee women in the recovery process.
COVID-19 pandemic—and the ensuing economic crisis—has disproportionately impacted migrant and refugee women’s economic security, access to safety, health, justice, and education. This submission outlines a range of proposed measures to ensure women from migrant and refugee backgrounds are adequately included in COVID-19 response and recovery initiatives in 2020-2021 financial year.
Harmony Alliance believes that in order to achieve positive outcomes for migrant and refugee women in all their diversity, intersectionality should be incorporated in all spheres of policy and practice, from legal rights to provision of services. We encourage and commend the embedding of the principles of intersectionality—including ongoing reflection, substantive representation, and commitment to equity—in policy and practice. This statement, informed by our members’ responses to Intersectionality Discussion Paper (January 2020) and earlier discussions within the Alliance, lays out what intersectionality means to us as migrant and refugee women.
Through the Community-led Projects to Prevent Violence against Women and their Children program, Harmony Alliance (the Alliance) has been working with the AustralAsian Centre for Human Rights and Health to support the development of an emerging evidence base on dowry abuse in Australia. Dowry giving is the practice of transferring substantial gifts, including money, property and jewellery, from the bride’s family to the groom’s family upon marriage whereas dowry abuse refers to controlling, isolating and violent behaviours linked to demands for dowry. From August to October 2020, the Alliance ran a national survey to understand levels of knowledge and awareness in the community regarding dowry demands and their link to abusive behaviours.
Migrant and refugee women are disproportionately affected by domestic, family and sexual violence due to compounding barriers and intersections of multiple forms of systemic disadvantage—including on the basis of migration status, race, culture, religion, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and disability. Any national plan to reduce the occurrence of family, domestic, and sexual violence against women in Australia must address migrant and refugee women’s concerns at structural level.
We welcome the recognition of migrant and refugee women’s health concerns and needs—including higher risk factors and additional barriers to accessing healthcare—in the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan. In this submission, we offer recommendations to ensure provision of high quality, safe, accessible, equitable, and culturally responsive care and support to women from migrant and refugee backgrounds who are bereaved or at high risk of experiencing stillbirth.
Migrant and refugee women have been significantly affected by the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government response to the pandemic has been inadequate in providing reliable support to many migrant and refugee women, particularly those experiencing income loss and/or family and domestic violence while on temporary visas.
Migrant and refugee women face significant structural barriers to accessing justice—including through the Family Law System—in Australia. These barriers include inadequate or insufficient access to interpreting services, low levels of systems literacy in a new country, complex interactions between migration regulations and family law system, and limited access to specialist legal aid and advice services. All of these factors impact migrant and refugee women’s access to justice, particularly in situations of family and domestic violence and family breakdown. A family law system reform must take these barriers into account and provide sufficient resources and training to all entities involved in family law proceedings to ensure that the family law system is accessible to those with special cultural and linguistic needs.
We welcome the opportunity to make a submission to the consultation on National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery 2020-2024. Trafficking, forced marriage, and modern slavery—practices identified by the consultation paper—often intersect with migration, and since women are overrepresented amongst victims of these practices, the national action plan to combat these practices must be considerate and inclusive of the perspectives and experiences of migrant and refugee women.
This submission outlines a range of proposed measures that have the potential to promote the full, effective and equal participation of Australian women from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
This submission highlights our concerns as migrant and refugee women regarding the proposed bill, particularly the impacts on our right to healthcare, mental and physical well-being, and equal opportunities to work and study. The Harmony Alliance is strongly opposed to the bill in its current form as it infringes upon the principles of integrity and fundamental human rights and will disproportionately affect us as migrant and refugee women.
There are several factors that contribute to significantly lower retirement income levels for migrant and refugee women. The retirement income review, therefore, must consider the multiple and compounded disadvantages and vulnerabilities faced by migrant and refugee women. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the consultation on retirement income review and respond to some of the specific aspects raised by the consultation paper in this submission.
Indigenous Australians represent the oldest living civilisation on earth. We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the custodians of this land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We commit to this acknowledgement on an ongoing basis in a manner that is meaningful in our everyday practice and conversations. It is a commitment of the Harmony Alliance to ensure that the starting point of any conversation we have in relation to the rights of migrant and refugee women is firmly centred around the broader conversation on the rights of First Nations women and First Nations people.
Promoting meaningful participation in the workforce by women from migrant and refugee backgrounds produces a win-win situation – boosting workforce performance while improving quality of life for individuals. This strategic approach seeks to contribute to facilitating better employment outcomes of women from migrant and refugee backgrounds. It is intended as a recommended roadmap for what better outcomes would look like, and what steps need to be taken in order to achieve these.
Jointly drafted with 51 other organisations, networks, alliances, and individuals, “Working Together for Equality Beijing+25 Review 2019: Australia” is part of the ongoing Australian Civil Society monitoring and evaluation of women’s rights commitments made by the Australian Government and Civil Society to the advancement of women through use of agreed strategies from the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) (1995), and the Beijing+5 Outcomes Document (2000). The purpose of this document is to measure Australia’s progress in the last 5 years (2014 – 2019) against the BPFA 25 years since it was agreed in 1995.
Harmony Alliance is a member of the National Advocacy Group on Women on Temporary Visas Experiencing Violence, that consists of over 50 state and national peak bodies, service providers and other organisations working to address violence against women across Australia. The Blueprint has been developed and endorsed by the group with an aim to collectively advocate for policy and law changes to support women on temporary visas experiencing violence and their children to be safe.
Australia is a thriving multicultural society. Migration has been instrumental to Australia’s growth, with 49 per cent of Australians either born overseas or with at least one parent born overseas. All levels of our society have benefitted from the skills and diversity that migrants bring to Australia.
The Harmony Alliance has today welcomed the strong funding commitments announced by the Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, the Minister for Women, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP, and the Minister for Families and Social Services, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, as part of the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.
The Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change notes the importance of social protections in fostering equitable societies and promoting equality and non- discrimination.
Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Department of Treasury regarding the 2019-2020 Federal Budget.
Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Review into integration, employment and settlement outcomes for refugees and humanitarian entrants.
Path to Nowhere (the Report) examines the issues for women on temporary visas experiencing violence and their children.
The Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change conducted the inaugural Migrant and Refugee Women’s Voices Survey in partnership with SBS and SBS Radio over six weeks between May and July 2018.
The Harmony Alliance has today welcomed a series of measures announced by the Minister for Women, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP, in the inaugural Women’s Economic Security Statement.
Migrant and Refugee Women’s Health Partnership and Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change welcome the opportunity to make a joint submission to the consultation on the draft National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030.
As part of the Alliance’s commitment to advocate for better health and wellbeing of women from migrant and refugee backgrounds, we held four consultations in the lead up to the development of the Fourth Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.
The Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the submission to the Senate Education and Employment Commitees regarding the appropriateness and effectiveness of the objectives, design, implementation and evaluation of jobactive.
The Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding the practice of dowry and the incidence of dowry abuse in Australia.
The Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Future Employment Services Consultation.
An open letter calling upon the female Members of Parliament and Senators to oppose proposed changes to Social Services legislation that would see new permanent residents of Australia wait four years before being eligible to access many crucial welfare payments.
The Harmony Alliance has this evening welcomed a series of measures announced in the 2018 federal budget aimed at improving the lives of Australian women. The Alliance has, however, expressed concern at the lack of focus on the needs of women from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
The Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding the Australian Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Commitments for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures) Bill 2018.
The Alliance welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Committee regarding the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Encouraging Self-sufficiency for Newly Arrived Migrants) Bill 2018
The Harmony Alliance reiterates its commitment to working with the Government and the Opposition to improve experiences and outcomes for women in Australia from migrant and refugee backgrounds, including women seeking asylum.
The Harmony Alliance has today called on the Australian Governments to prioritise for further research the experiences of violence by women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, after the release of the Australian Institute on Health and Welfare report on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence 2018.
The Harmony Alliance has today expressed concern at the Government’s announcement that it will seek to increase waiting periods to three years before new migrants can access many welfare payments, and introduce a three-year waiting period to access Family Tax Benefit, Paid Parental Leave and Carer Allowance.
AWAVA and Harmony Alliance call on the Government to facilitate the implementation of actions and commitments made in the Third Action Plan 2016-19 of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.
