Mothers and the Budget

Visitors to this blog may have heard mention of changes to tax rebates for private health insurance, means testing for the Baby Bonus, and a new scheme of Paid Parental Leave. Another reform that could be of great significance to anyone who plans to have babies after 1 November next year 2010 is Medicare and insurance for midwives - see the village midwife blog and the MIPP blog.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Womens Action Alliance presents its response to the Budget:
"Any policy which encourages mothers to separate from their babies during the early years before they feel ready is a highly dubious policy indeed. In adopting the Paid Parental Leave scheme announced in the Budget Speech we detect a distinct antipathy on the part of your Government towards mothers who commit themselves full time to the care of their young children – even where that commitment is limited to the very early (pre school) years.

"If any mothers are to be excluded from taxpayer funded assistance given at the time of birth it should be on the basis of a means test only and not on the basis of their choice about paid workforce participation while their children are young.

"We listened with great interest to the Treasurer deliver the speech last Tuesday night. We were disappointed to find that the Paid Parental Leave model that is promised is, in essence, the same ‘exclusive’ one about which we expressed reservations in our submissions to the Productivity Commission. ie it excludes most mothers who have babies in Australia each year.

"Those who have not returned to paid work after the birth of an earlier child, those who are unemployed or have small amounts of casual employment, those who are recently employed, employed on contracts or self employed, those who resign during the pregnancy not always of their own choice. These will all miss out and they include many low and middle income women. While they will receive the Baby Bonus and Family Tax Benefit Part B the difference is substantial and discriminatory.

"The figures provided on Page XXV1 of the Productivity Commission’s interim report showed that only 140,000 of the approximately 285,000 mothers who give birth each year will be eligible for the payment. ie most mothers will miss out. ..."


While the ACTU has proclaimed the budget a victory on behalf of working mothers in its press release, our society has yet to set a real value on the work a mother does with her babies and young children.