It's just possible that Michaelia Cash is the worst minister for women Australia has had. And that's saying something because her predecessor was former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and he was useless. But he did talk the talk, if not walk the walk.
Women's advocates say Senator Cash may be in cabinet but she's out of touch with her constituency, the women of Australia. This week's news she cancelled a planned meeting with the states – the one chance she had this year to talk domestic violence leave with all the industrial relations ministers – may have been the last straw.
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Fiona McCormack, CEO of Domestic Violence Victoria, was devastated to hear the senator was recommending the meeting be cancelled.
"We are hoping she changes her mind, given the unprecedented opportunity we have to engage with businesses across Australia that are already indicating their interest and will to address family violence," she said.
![Michaelia Cash and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.](/web/20161030004555im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/y/h/n/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsbhlm.png/1477651156953.jpg)
Meanwhile Rosie Batty, 2015 Australian of the Year and a fearless advocate in the struggle to stop violence against women and to get more funding for the Family Court, is also disappointed.
"After taking over that role from Tony Abbott, we had high hopes," she says.
The crusader against violence is always polite, and the two are meeting on Friday morning at the COAG violence against women summit. But Batty thinks Cash should tour regional Australia, so she can see for herself – like Batty just did on a trip to Broken Hill – just how many women are victims of violence and how the system is compounding it.
"Michaelia must acknowledge the systemic abuse that women are being subjected to by the Family Court system," Batty argues. "As a representative of Australian women, it is her problem. And it is her advocacy and support which will help prioritise than on the national agenda."
![Rosie Batty says Cash's advocacy and support can influence the national agenda.](/web/20161030004555im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/1/p/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsbhlm.png/1477651156953.jpg)
But isn't that a matter Batty should take up with the Attorney-General?
"It won't become a priority unless she makes it a priority ... she holds a very influential role and her role is being representative of women's rights," Batty says.
![Minister for Women and the Minister for Employment: Michaelia Cash.](/web/20161030004555im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/l/2/3/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsbhlm.png/1477651156953.jpg)
She is also perplexed by the federal government's refusal to back Community Legal Centres (their funding drops off a cliff next year).
"I would love to take Senator Cash on a trip to regional Australia. I would love her to take all of the ministers so they can really see the work that CLCs do and the effect of those looming cuts to their services.
It took Nick Xenophon, not Cash, to take a stand against the government's irresponsible paid parental leave cuts.
"This is going to be catastrophic."
But women aren't just disappointed about the lack of progress on domestic violence.
Marie Coleman, chairwoman of the social policy committee of the National Foundation for Women, has spent many years battling to get workplace equality, and she says Senator Cash needs to get on board to address underemployment.
"The minister has not yet taken sufficiently seriously the increasing casualisation and underemployment of women in Australia," Coleman says. "She is both the Minister for Women and the Minister for Employment so she sits right at the intersection of the problem. She needs to attend to it."
And it took Nick Xenophon, not Cash, to take a stand against the government's irresponsible paid parental leave cuts that were set to destroy the plans of women who are currently pregnant. Why is it up to crossbench senators to do the right thing? Why won't the Minister for Women?
Jo Briskey, the executive director of parent rights lobby group The Parenthood has spent the past few days organising a campaign to stop government cuts to paid parental leave and she was shocked at the senator's lack of action.
"Front and centre, she is not standing up for women who are about to take paid parental leave. She should be in cabinet fighting to protect paid parental leave for women," Briskey says.
"We need to get cuts back off the table altogether. We risk Australia going backwards on women's equality in the workplace."
On the topic of equality in the workplace, does Cash know the full-time gender pay gap is 16 per cent?
Ged Kearney, the president of the ACTU, the peak body for the Australian unions, asks why Senator Cash is not seizing this moment.
"We are about to have a COAG meeting about domestic violence and given there is a case in the Fair Work Commission about domestic violence leave, you'd think Senator Cash would star."
And Kearney says Cash should be working towards domestic violence leave as part of the National Employment Standard.
Instead, the Minister for Women is on the record saying domestic violence leave would put employers off hiring women. And finally, Kearney asks, what is the Minister for Women and for Employment doing about the gender pay gap?
No-one knows the answer.
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