CART (0)NSW Treasurer Michael Egan announced this morning (2 April 2004) that the Department for Women would be abolished and replaced with “an Office of Women elevated to the Premier’s Department.” The announcement was part of the state’s mini-budget and follows speculation within women’s circles for the past few weeks that such moves were afoot.
Comment: NSW was the only state to have a Department for Women and will now join the other states in retaining an office but not a Ministry. The Director of the Department for Women, Robyn Henderson, was removed from the job earlier this year in what perhaps should now be seen as a harbinger of what was to come. The move follows another change in ministerial arrangement affecting women, this time in Queensland where, following the recent State election, the Office of Women was removed from the Premier’s department was demoted to the Local government department. Perhaps we should be asking Mark Latham what his plans are for the Office of the Status of Women?
More news on this development as it unfolds.