Page 4114 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Bronwyn Bishop, the chair of the work and family services committee, said in a recent statement:
The decisions women make about what to do with their skills and experience are going to have a major effect on Australia’s future economic survival.
Access Economics modelling commissioned by the committee found that if there are no further increases to women’s workforce participation, or even if increases are limited to part time participation, we are going to see Budget shortfalls even greater ...
In short, we need to make work and life easier to balance not just because women and families are running out of steam but for the future stability of the Australian economy. Good economic management needs to consider how to make life easier for families. Furthermore, it is not even just about the health of our economy. For the commonwealth government, it is also about a return on investment. The commonwealth believes it makes an enormous investment—although I believe it could do more—in the education of women at both TAFE and university levels. It funds apprenticeships and traineeships. If the commonwealth is going to expect a return on that investment, it must make working and having a family easier to manage.
Work and life balance is no longer something only the left wing keeps on about; nor is it the exclusive domain of the women’s rights movement. Work and family life balance is an economic imperative. It is about return on investment; it is about the future health and stability of our economy; it is about the physical and mental health of our mothers, fathers and grandparents; and it is about caring appropriately for our children.
For many families, part of balancing work and family is about appropriate, available and affordable childcare. But the childcare system in Australia needs reform, and it needs reform now. Childcare costs are expensive. For many families they are more than the second wage-earner’s entire pay packet. It is not unusual to hear of families spending upwards of $500 a week per child. That comes to well over $25,000 a year—not a small amount of money for many families.
The House of Representatives committee has recommended that the federal government make childcare costs tax deductible. However, there are a number of problems with this proposal. The committee commissioned Econtech to look at the options the committee considered. It found that only families with individual incomes above $75,000 will benefit from tax-deductible childcare. This is not an equitable arrangement. This will not, of course, make juggling work and family life easier for individuals who earn less than $75,000.
The Australian Taskforce on Care Costs clearly states that with tax deduction there is always a greater benefit to high income earners. Labor members of the committee, in their dissenting report, state that tax deductibility is simply welfare for the wealthy. Liberal MP Louise Markus, in a clarifying statement, says that the tax deductibility status of childcare will allow high income earners to obtain greater assistance for childcare costs than that available to low and middle income earners. She states:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .