Improvement in the quality of early childhood education and care has been a bright spot, with the 2012 introduction of the National Quality Standard – 87 per cent of services are currently rated as meeting or exceeding the standards.
The biggest policy change in two decades has been in paid parental leave, introduced in 2011. While some workers had enjoyed the benefits of employer schemes, it wasn’t until the Gillard government introduced a national parental leave pay scheme that all workers had access to a period of paid leave from work – 18 weeks paid at the national minimum wage at the birth or adoption of a child. In 2013 an additional 2 weeks of “dad and partner pay” was added.
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Tony Abbot proposed a more generous scheme but on Mother’s Day 2015 it was dumped and treasurer Joe Hockey accused some mothers of fraud, rorting and “double-dipping” (even though they used the scheme as it was designed). A low point in the politics of work/care policymaking.
Last month’s budget saw another round of changes, including scrapping the portion of leave dedicated for fathers to make the full 20 weeks able to be shared by both parents. Research evidence cited in the Australian Work + Family Policy Roundtable Federal Election Benchmarks 2022 shows fathers are unlikely to share the leave. At 20 weeks it is just too short for women recovering from birth to share, and too low paid to be attractive to men. Superannuation is also missing.
What is striking is that given all the money and all the talk of the past two decades, Australia’s policy architecture for work and care does not reflect the realities of women’s labour force participation (now at historic highs) or young workers’ desire for more equal sharing of family care and paid work.
Instead, the realities of combining work and family remain a logistical nightmare, a source of worry and a financial stress for many working women and their partners.
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Governments are dragging their feet and the community is demanding more. The pandemic has catalysed a new consensus between business, community and academics on the urgent need for new investment in robust policies for equitable work and care and a professionally paid care workforce.
This year a lift was installed at my local train station, improving access for parents. But the need for universal access to free early childhood education and care, plus an effective paid parental leave scheme, remains unfinished business.
Care is essential to economic life. Policies that support workers to better combine work and care will deliver a substantial productivity and growth dividend and enhance the wellbeing of families.
We can’t afford to wait another 21 years.
Elizabeth Hill is associate professor in political economy at the University of Sydney, deputy director of the Gender Equality in Working Life Initiative, and co-convenor of the Australian Work + Family Policy Roundtable.
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