The night after the federal Budget was tabled, Senator Katy Gallagher told the story of an 18-year-old woman who asked to meet with her. The teenager explained how her father kept her mother in poverty after their marriage broke down. 

“This meant that she, too, grew up in poverty,” said Senator Gallagher to hundreds of leaders at the FW La Trobe Financial Budget Dinner, held in the Great Hall at Parliament House. 

“When you hear those stories, you know that the system isn’t working as it should – so that is the work before us.” 

It’s stories like these that make the measures in this Budget matter – including an additional $550 million to respond to violence against women and children, as well as $182.6 million to reform a child support system that could be weaponised as a tool of financial abuse and coercive control.

“Achieving this has only been possible because of the work of many of the women in this room, in our caucus,” said Gallagher. 

“It’s an honour to work with every one of those incredible women every day, but right across the sector, it’s work that Future Women do – incredible and life-changing work – and also individual women who run campaigns for fairness and change. Women like Dr Anne Summers, who never takes a step back and constantly keeps us accountable. And Terese Edwards, who campaigned on the single-parenting payment.”

Gallagher highlighted some hard-won progress. The gender pay gap has hit a record low – down to 11.5 percent in 2025 – and as of March this year, Australia ranks 13th globally for gender equality, up from 43rd in 2022. 

At the Budget Dinner, surrounded by many of her Senate colleagues, Gallagher noted that, for the first time in history, Australia has a gender-balanced parliament.  

“When I sit back and look across our caucus room, it provides a picture that the women who came before me could have only dreamed about, and this is something to celebrate,” she said. 

Jacki Jennings, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at La Trobe Financial, the Presenting Partner of this event, opened with a similar sentiment. 

“This isn’t just dinner. This is a room where the conversation about Australia’s economic future – and the women who shape it and are shaped by it – gets to happen at full volume,” said Jennings.  

“The federal Budget is many things. It is a set of numbers. It is a political statement. But above all, it is a set of choices – about who we invest in, who we protect, and who we trust to build this country’s prosperity… [and] we know the landscape is not level.” 

As the Budget laid bare, around $2 billion in child support debt is sitting unpaid across Australia, and roughly 83 to 84 percent of the people owed that money are women.

“These aren’t abstract statistics,” said Jennings. “They are the lived reality of women in this room – and millions of women who aren’t.”

Alongside government scheme reforms, the Budget continues building on investments in women’s health, including more affordable access to contraceptives and menopause treatments.

Nathalie McNeil, Vice President and General Manager of AbbVie Australia and New Zealand – partner of the Budget event – spoke on a panel during the dinner. She believes “every dollar we spend on health is a dollar well spent”. 

“Sadly, there are still Australian patients who are missing out on the treatments that are available around the world that we don’t yet have access to,” said McNeil. “So there’s still work to be done, but I’m very hopeful, because I see so much progress in that direction, and I see incredible women in this room.”

Deanne Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Aware Super, also a partner on the event, closed by reflecting on the wins in this Budget and the big choices ahead. 

She shared her own story of how she’d tried to use an AI image generator to create a picture of a mother hugging a medical student, to send to her daughter before her GAMSAT (graduate medical school admissions test). Every image that came back showed a male student.

“It is a reminder that the systems that we build really do reflect inherent biases of the way things have been. And how important the choices we make – or fail to make – are when we look forward.”

Stewart pointed to AI, housing and energy as the areas she sees shaping Australia’s economic future – and said we need to move quickly in all three. 

“That window is open, but it won’t stay open indefinitely,” she said. 

“We have the talent – 50 percent of them women – the capital, the institutions, the natural advantages to be a force in this era, but we must resist the inherent biases, and falling back on old siloed and slow ways, and how things have been. And choose this future with urgency, intention and courage.” 

Photography credit: Ashley St George, Pew Pew Studio