Australia falling behind in gender pay gap, women's safety and incarceration rates, new report shows.

By Brooke Boney, staff.

Australia is performing poorly in women’s safety and income equality as well as a number of other key social issues compared with other OECD countries, a report by the Community Council for Australia has found.

The report is the first of its kind and its authors said it was designed to measure how Australia performs against key values and goals prioritised by more than 60 charity and non-government organisations.

Compared with OECD counterparts, Australia fell short in many of the rankings.

More than half of Australian women surveyed said they did not feel safe walking alone at night — well below the OECD average of 60.6 per cent.

In comparison, nearly 80 per cent of Australian men said they did feel safe walking home.

Council chair Tim Costello said this highlighted an important relationship between men and women and should prompt discussion about the causes.

“We men actually have to have a conversation about why our wives and partners and daughters are actually feeling that,” he said.

Key findings:

• More than half of Australian women feel unsafe walking alone at night
• Australian women are paid 17.3 per cent less than male counterparts
• Incarceration rates are rising by 6 per cent a year and are now three times that of Ireland
• The NT has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the world and is four times the national average
• Suicide rates have increased, by as much as 20 per cent in some states
• Australians are donating a lower percentage of their salaries to charities than a decade ago
• Australia now give less international aid than most OECD countries
• One in five Australians aged 15 to 74 have not completed secondary education

The report also highlighted the gender pay gap as a major issue.

The council said Australian women were paid 17.3 per cent less than their male counterparts.

Although the employment figures were high compared to other OECD countries, the gap between male and female employment remains.

Mr Costello said more work must be done in guaranteeing Australian women had the same access as men.

“We want values to say gender equality actually is our value and we’ve got to address pay and safety,” he said.

High incarceration rates, education statistics also ‘worrying’

The report also highlighted Australia’s high incarceration rates, which are rising by 6 per cent a year and are now three times that of Ireland.

In the Northern Territory, they are not only four times higher than the national average, but even higher than the global outlier in incarceration rates, the United States.

According to the report, one in five Australians aged 15–74 did not complete secondary education.

The authors said this was “worrying” given the negative repercussions of poor educational attainment for many people.

The report also found that Australians were volunteering less and sending less money to aid organisations overseas.

But Australia is above average compared to other OECD countries in equality of access to employment, education levels, and business confidence.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.

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