WINA together with eight other professional organisations, ARITA, AIIP, CA ANZ, CPA Australia, IPA,LIPS, TMA and WIRV is proud to have supported an important industry-wide initiative aimed at addressing gender imbalance in Australia’s insolvency profession.
Through a collaborative Working Group, the organisations prepared a joint submission, Achieving Gender Balance in Insolvency, which was discussed with the Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP and Treasury in Canberra on 14 October.
The submission puts forward two key recommendations designed to address barriers to greater female representation within the profession:
More time to gain experience: Extend from five years to seven years the period in which applicants can accumulate the required 4,000 hours of senior insolvency experience.
Access to appointments: Introduce a voluntary benchmark under which 25 per cent of new government-initiated insolvency appointments are offered, in the first instance, to female registered insolvency practitioners.
With women currently representing only 11% of registered liquidators and 17% of registered trustees in bankruptcy, sustained collaboration across the profession will be critical to achieving meaningful and lasting change.
This initiative represents an important step towards building a more inclusive and representative insolvency profession, and WINA is proud to have contributed alongside its industry peers.
Meaningful change requires collective action. By working together across the profession, we all have an opportunity to remove practical barriers, broaden access to appointments and create a stronger pathway for more women to progress and lead in insolvency.
The joint submission is supported by Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners (AIIP), Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA), Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), CPA Australia, Institute of Public Accountants (IPA), Ladies Insolvency Professionals (LIPS), Turnaround Management Association Australia (TMA Australia), Women’s Insolvency Network Australia (NSW Branch) (WINA), Women in Insolvency and Restructuring Victoria (WIRV).
Thank you to Shabnam Amirbeaggi, GAICD, FCPA, Kathleen Vouris, Tianne Nagy-Jones, Jill Muir, Belinda Zohrab, Vicki Stylianou, Christina Cavallaro, Emily Seeckts, Martie Tziotis and Caitlyn Hoey, and the organisations they represent, for collaborating on this initiative.
Read the joint submission below: