Gender Equality and the Failure of Political Imagination: Lessons for Reframing in Uncertain Times

This chapter focuses on Australian government policy but also provides relevant international examples. The Australian Albanese government is committed to making Australia a world leader in gender equality again. However, it is attempting to do so in very difficult and uncertain times in which the government faces major social, economic, technological and climate change challenges. Furthermore, there is a backlash internationally in which gender issues are being mobilised to support authoritarian and radical right agendas. Meanwhile, culture war perspectives are impacting on Indigenous women’s rights. This chapter will explore some of the dilemmas that this and future Australian governments and governments internationally will face, from artificial intelligence to climate change. It will argue that gender equality policy has all too often been shaped by pre-existing policy frameworks designed to address other issues. Consequently, governments need to reassess and reimagine the policy frameworks they are using and this is even more important given the current and future challenges they face. At the same time, Australia, as a multicultural, settler-colonial society situated in the Asia–Pacific has some potentially interesting insights and lessons to offer, if Australian governments can seize the opportunity.