Several advocacy groups warned today that the advancement of gender equality policies for the entire year could come to a complete standstill as they criticized a budgetary amendment proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to cut funding for gender equality services.
Gender equality advocacy groups including Taiwan Equality Campaign, the Taiwan Gender Equality Education Association, the Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy and the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association released a joint statement today in response to a bill proposed by KMT lawmakers that would cancel almost the entire budget for services provided by the Executive Yuan’s Department of Gender Equality if it passes.
KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) proposed the bill that would cut funding for gender equality services from NT$16.27 million (US$490,000) to just NT$3,000, which was cosigned by KMT Legislators Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) and Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄).
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
As the legislative review of the central government budget for the fiscal year 2025 remains in progress, the groups called for legislators to adopt a professional and constructive attitude towards reviewing the proposal.
Improving amendments and policies advocating for gender equality requires not only legislative oversight but also sufficient resources from the budget to support work such as collecting statistics and data, researching policies and holding discussions, they said.
The Awakening Foundation also released a statement yesterday, saying that although legislators proposing and reviewing bills is necessary within Taiwan’s democratic system, the proposal clearly lacks substance and shows that the legislators who proposed it do not understand the governance, labor division or responsibilities of Taiwan’s gender equality system.
Hsu said that many ministries have implemented gender equality policies, not just the Executive Yuan's Department of Gender Equality, and her former political stances show that she is a staunch advocate for gender equality policies and their budgeting.
This proposal is intended to make the Department of Gender Equality play a more active role in policy oversight, and the proposing legislators hope the department can clarify its plans to continue its work so that legislators can adjust the budget accordingly, she said.
The department has not effectively communicated with legislators, leading to misunderstandings among activist groups who are not familiar with the legislative process and believe that the budget cuts would affect the implementation of gender-equality related policies, which is untrue, she added.
Hsu urged the department to send personnel to report to legislators how they could improve policy oversight in future.
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