Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to speak tonight to celebrate, along with thousands of other women around the country, the historic announcement by the government on Sunday that it will introduce a national government funded paid parental leave scheme. The announcement, which came on Mother’s Day, could not have been more fitting as families around the country came together to pay special tribute to the invaluable but far too often underrecognised roles that mothers play in nurturing our young and creating a safe and loving family life. Mother’s Day provided the perfect backdrop for the government’s announcement, as it combined the traditional method of private acknowledgement of mothers with a formal recognition of their vital role in caring for our young children.

As the Treasurer emphasised when making the announcement on Sunday, the introduction of a national paid parental leave scheme by the government:

... goes to the core of working family life in this country and the fact that we must value the relationship between a mum and a newborn child.

Under the scheme, which is due to commence on 1 January 2011, eligible parents will be able to access up to 18 weeks paid leave to be paid at the federal minimum wage. The government estimates that around 148,000 mothers and primary carers will fall eligible under the scheme each year. Paid leave will be available to contractors, casual workers and the self-employed, many of whom have no access to employer provided paid parental leave entitlements. Indeed, by offering working mums some much-needed support, the scheme will particularly benefit low-income mothers, who traditionally have little access to paid maternity leave. This historic announcement represents a win not only for families but also for working mothers, who for a number of different reasons are often forced to return to work early and juggle the dual responsibilities of work and home as an income earner and a primary carer.

The announcement of the scheme is also a win for the hundreds of women who have campaigned so hard for this over the last 30 years. As with other battles fought and won by women around the globe, it proves persistence is essential. Finally, the announcement also represents a win for the working women and mothers of the future who, when making the all-important decision to start a family, will do so in a much more supportive environment than those in the past. The significant benefits that will result from the introduction of the scheme should not be understated. By allowing parents the opportunity to access paid leave for up to 18 weeks after the birth of their child, the scheme specifically recognises and places formal value on the essential role that parents play in the first few months of a child’s life. It is a role that by nature has traditionally been undertaken by women and, as a consequence, has up until now remained largely unrecognised when it comes to paid workforce participation.

The introduction of the scheme also represents a welcome policy shift by the government, in terms of an introduction of policies that more accurately reflect and accommodate for the practical realities of the dual demands of work and family life. For far too long, women’s workforce participation has been measured against the largely outdated male stereotype of the typical worker and has suffered as a result. As the Australian government’s 2008 report to the United Nations entitled Women in Australia highlights, despite the fact that women today represent almost half our paid workforce and outnumber men when it comes to completing university education, the labour force in Australia continues to be segregated by gender and women continue to get paid substantially less than their male counterparts. The figures speak for themselves. As of February 2008, the average weekly full-time earnings for men in Australia was a little over $1,200, whereas for women it was around $1,000, representing a gap of 16.2 per cent. The government’s report also highlighted the fact that women were overrepresented in the service based industries, such as health, community services and retail—the jobs that traditionally attract less pay and are most likely to be on a casual or part-time basis.

While I am under no illusions that the introduction of a paid parental leave scheme by the Rudd government will somehow provide a cure to all these long-running ills and result in women enjoying true equal representation in the Australian workforce—although that would be nice—the introduction of the scheme will make a good start when it comes to reconceptualising the relationship between work and home. This must occur if women are ever to achieve equal pay and status in the Australian workplace. By granting monetary recognition to the role of primary care giver—a role traditionally filled by women—in the private sphere, paid parental leave is legitimising and valuing their role in the public sphere in the Australian workplace. In this way, paid parental leave will effectively provide the missing continuum—the essential link between the vital roles that women play both at home and in the workplace. For this reason alone, the government’s commitment to introduce a paid parental leave scheme should be applauded. This policy shift stands in stark contrast to that of the previous government supported by those on the opposite side of the chamber. It is agreed between many social commentators that their policies did substantial damage to women’s labour force participation and, more specifically, had the effect of reinforcing the status quo of men as the primary breadwinners and women as simply the second earners.

Liz van Acker, in her paper The Howard Government’s budgets: stay-at home mothers good—single mothers bad, argues that the 2004 budget package, which included an increase of $600 a year in the maximum and base rates for child endowment and family allowance, ‘promoted the white picket fence ideal of mother as prime carer’ and males as the traditional breadwinners. Work Choices, as we all know, also hit more vulnerable groups, such as women, the hardest. Two studies into the effect of Work Choices, conducted on behalf of the New South Wales Department of Commerce, concluded that its impact on low-paid female workers in particular was significant. Needless to say, based on the completely outdated female-workforce-participation model peddled by those opposite whilst in power, we would never have seen a paid parental leave scheme introduced.

When announcing the scheme on Sunday, the Treasurer also made another point indicative of the shift in policy priorities. The Treasurer commented that the introduction of the paid parental leave scheme is not only vital for parents; it is equally vital for children. He rightly noted that ‘the early years of a child’s life are so important to that child’s prospects later in life’. In this sense the introduction represents a vital investment in female workforce participation. It is also quite simply an investment in our children’s future. This sentiment was echoed by the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, early last year, when she said that the Rudd government’s approach to family policy was to put children at the centre of policy making and not on the margin. Indeed, the introduction of a paid parental leave scheme by its very nature places inherent value on the caring needs of children during their first few months of life. By allowing parents, particularly new mothers, to take paid time off work to care for their babies, it not only encourages new mums to recover from giving birth; it also allows them the space to be able to breastfeed, care and bond with their newborn. The importance of such things in assisting a child’s development later in life should not be underestimated.

Finally, as has been argued more strongly in recent times, there are also a number of significant economic benefits to flow from the introduction of the scheme. As the Australian Council of Trade Unions noted in their response on Sunday welcoming the scheme, paid parental leave is ‘good for business and the economy because it will help keep skilled, experienced female staff attached to the workforce’. Indeed, as the ACTU noted in their submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry, mothers make up one of the largest untapped labour resources in the country and, with Treasury modelling showing that a 2.5 per cent increase in labour force participation would produce an additional nine per cent increase in economic output by 2022, helping more mothers back to work has the potential to boost productivity and strengthen the economy. As I mentioned earlier, the government’s announcement on Sunday represents not only a win for working families but also a win for hundreds of thousands of Australians who have campaigned long and hard—indeed an outcome that has been 30 years in the making. Many Tasmanians have worked extremely hard in support of the introduction of the scheme. In particular, I would like to pay special tribute to the hard work and dedication of the team at Unions Tasmania that have run their ‘Mums Rights at Work’ campaign with much success.

As I finish, I would also specifically like to acknowledge and congratulate the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, and the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, for shifting the debate regarding paid parental leave from ‘if’ to ‘when’ such a scheme would be introduced and then seeing it through to fruition in what have been increasingly difficult economic times. The introduction of the scheme will undoubtedly be reflected on as a major milestone. (Time expired)