A majority of Australian voters believe many of the country's federal politicians are sexist, that government should do more to reduce the gender pay gap, and that childcare costs should be treated as a work expense, new polling suggests.
The results of a survey of 1065 Australians, commissioned by non-partisan lobby group WomenVote and conducted by YouGov, was released on Wednesday.
Seventy-one per cent of those surveyed believe government should do more to reduce the gender pay gap while 75 per cent believe more needs to be done to address the superannuation gap.
Some 59 per cent of voters believe it's harder for women to be promoted than men. Over 70 per cent of women held that view compared with just 45 per cent of the men surveyed.
When it comes to childcare, 18 per cent said current costs are fair, but 63 per cent of those surveyed thought it was too expensive. Almost 65 per cent said childcare should be a tax-deductible expense.
More than half of respondents said at least 50 per cent of federal politicians should be women - compared to almost 20 per cent who don't believe in equal representation.
Some 45 per cent believe the Liberal party should adopt a quota system to increase the percentage of women elected to federal parliament.
Fifty-five per cent think many federal politicians are sexist. Seventy per cent of Greens voters held that view compared to 64 per cent of Labor voters and 46 per cent of coalition supporters.
"Unless the female electorate holds politicians to account, the issues about which women are most concerned will not be addressed in this election," WomenVote co-founder Vanessa Whittaker said in a statement.
Lawyers Vanessa Whittaker SC, Sera Mirzabegian and Maria O'Brien launched WomenVote in March to highlight policies affecting women.
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