By Conrad Liveris
Women, as the majority of primary-parents, are being sold short.
The federal government's policies to support women are vexed and send mixed messages.
In the lead-up to the federal budget, both Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey had a crack at double-dippers.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
By pitting paid parental leave and childcare against each other nobody can win.
Before the federal budget the Treasurer, Prime Minister and Social Services Minister labelled those who accessed government and employer parental leave contributions as rorters, fraudsters and double-dippers. You could be forgiven for thinking that parents across the land were criminals.
By pitting paid parental leave and childcare against each other nobody can win, Conrad Liveris writes.
A scheme they helped champion backed by industry, the Productivity Commission and experts across gender equality, health and workforce participation was apparently wrong.
The message was loud and clear. Parents must choose.
As Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott were trying to talk up the economy they launched a repulsive attack on Australian parents, specifically mothers.
This seems to be backed by the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women, Michaelia Cash, who told the Australian Financial Review yesterday the trade-off between PPL and childcare was "necessary".
What tripe.
The great myth about these policies is that they should be designed for women and the economics are paramount.
As a big fan of economics and the value of women's contributions to the workforce I can see where the government is coming from.
However, our priority here must be the benefit that these policies bring for children.
The research and experience is conclusive: 26 weeks of paid parental leave and quality, accessible and affordable childcare is the standard we should meet.
We have the first at minimum wage but remain distant from the second.
The Perth CBD has just one childcare centre. Many parents, mostly mothers, have to choose between high-priced childcare and work. That choice rarely works out to be financially savvy. I have lost count the amount of times I have spoken to women who are working part-time and are losing money by being at work because of the cost of childcare.
The reality is the economics are clear on this issue. Investing in childcare and PPL work.
Investments in these policies pay for themselves. We see more women working, increased tax revenue, improved educational outcomes for children and healthier more productive citizens.
Not only are these policies vote-winners, they stimulate economic activity.
It is high-time the government reconsider their position here. Their approach has failed a moral test by turning parents into criminals and economically is shallow.
But this is not the first time that Abbott has pushed women away.
Since forming government, Abbott has done more backflips on policies to support women than an acrobat.
"If you look at our frontbench, most of the blokes have stay-at-home wives. Now, I'm not criticising that situation, but it doesn't reflect what the rest of the country's like. And it does have an impact on policy", Bronwyn Bishop said to Julia Baird in 2003.
Little has changed in twelve years.
Feeding into a shallow pool of talent that fails to reflect the great diversity of Australia. The outcome is policy that is confused, vindictive and fails to harness our current and future potential.
Any reasonable person sees that to support women's economic empowerment and children's education both paid parental leave and childcare are necessary.
It would do Australia some good if politicians actively sought the views of parents managing the balance between parenting and childcare. Bringing these to the table would help them avoid these challenges.
Cabinet and politics operates best when we have a broad talent pool to pull on, and not just the same tired, old white men.