Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

ANANDA-RAJAH () (): The welcoming of a child into a family is a joyous experience. Families are brought together, dreams are fulfilled, gifts are given. But nothing really prepares you for it—the chaos, the exhaustion, the brain fog, the multitasking. The demands on families are relentless and mounting, and most of the care falls on the shoulders of the woman, the mother, who has to then balance raising a child with looking after other children and attending to household duties, while her career—or what is left of it—slowly ebbs away. Now, this story is familiar to millions and millions of Australian women, including me.

If it takes a village to raise a child, all I can say is: that village has disappeared from modern life. We simply don't have the help around us that we once did. Multigenerational families are the exception rather than the rule in our culture. It falls, then, on early childhood education and care to pick up that load, that slack. Child care is not a prop; it is a pillar—a pillar for so many families and for society at large.

So the blessing of children comes, unfortunately, with a trade-off, and that trade-off has lived in the shadows for too long. For the mother, the motherhood penalty is very real. And it is insidious; it creeps up on you; you don't even realise it's happening—until, as I said in my maiden speech, ambition is dimmed until it's snuffed out altogether. And the effect is compounding. The effect on the individual spells less job security; career progression that effectively stalls, in some cases; less pay; less super; fewer assets; and, in later life, increased vulnerability. In other words, women in their older years are less resilient to the shocks in life, whether they be illness, relationship breakdown or worse.

For the nation, the effect is also significant. What we have is a denial of talent and of the energy that women bring to the table.

We are reaping, unfortunately, nine years of neglect of this entire policy piece of work. Those opposite deprioritised women. Women were airbrushed out of the economic narrative. Those opposite stood by, hands in pockets, watching childcare costs balloon—a whopping 41 per cent in eight years. This was felt acutely in my electorate of Higgins. Why? Because Higgins actually has the highest childcare fees in Victoria. That is according to a study by the Mitchell institute, Victoria University, that was published this year. It has the highest childcare fees. This weighs like a millstone around the necks of my constituents and my families.

Debate interrupted.

See this speech in context