Equal Pay
Federal Government fails families - again
14 May 2003
The Government's decision not to support working families with any form of national paid maternity leave is sadly disappointing for Australia's working families, says Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward.
It especially fails to take account of the need for Australian women to recover from child birth and nurture their children without financial pressure.
The absence of a national scheme means that Australian women will continue to return to work early and leave their children early, hardly in step with a so called family-focussed nation such as ours. Meanwhile women in all other OECD countries, except the United States, are able to remain at home for at least those first precious months.
Work and family remains a barbecue stopper, it is still a top order issue for Australian families. Paid maternity leave is a "must have" for countries determined to better balance the work and family lives of their citizens.
I have always said it is the responsibility of government, as it is in every OECD country other than Switzerland, to provide such a scheme.
Although I have frequently agreed with employers that employer-provided maternity leave would be difficult for many of them, especially in small
business, it should be appreciated that the absence of any announcement in this Budget means Australian women now have no option but to pursue the IR solution (as at least an interim measure) by joining the ACTU test-case.
This surely cannot be what the Government has intended.
I encourage the Government to commit to a national scheme of paid maternity leave as soon as possible. HREOC receives many requests for
application forms from women anxious to apply for the benefit; it would be nice to give them the right answer.
|
