Page 2119 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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I hope I did not miss anybody. Well done; thank you. Respect; just respect. There, I have just changed workplace culture. It was not so hard. I hope it can happen more in workplaces in Canberra. When we are old and grey and the next generation is combing our hair, we will then see the value of all this work we have done. Let us raise mums and dads up, and put them first in our minds and hearts today. Let us see cultural change, and an end to a culture of pregnancy and parental harassment and discrimination in our community.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (4.18): I thank Mrs Jones for bringing this motion forward today on what is an important issue—how we as a community treat pregnant women in the workplace. In responding to this motion, I note that the report referred to by Mrs Jones in the motion covers not only discrimination related to pregnancy but also parental leave and return to work, and these three areas are inextricably linked. If we discriminate against women returning to the workforce after pregnancy or against anyone returning after a period of parental leave or other carers’ responsibilities, we do a great disservice to our community; we not only disadvantage those directly affected but we also lose a great deal of experience and knowledge from our workplaces.
In its recent draft report on childcare and early childhood learning, the Productivity Commission recognised the benefits of increased workforce participation to the wider community, including reduced social and economic disadvantage, increased gross domestic product and economic productivity, and improvements in the government’s fiscal position. The Productivity Commission also identified the availability of flexible work and other family friendly arrangements as determinants of workforce participation.
While many women make a choice to leave the workforce while their children are young, they can often face seemingly insurmountable barriers in returning to work. If they are able to return to the workforce, they may have difficulties achieving their occupational aspirations. Barriers to women returning to the workforce and progressing in their careers can have a lasting impact on their ability to establish their financial independence but also contribute to the broader family budget. Barriers may be attitudinal. For example, “We can’t promote her because she has children. They might get sick.” They may be structural, such as inflexible hours, or they may be physical, such as no provision for a private space to breastfeed.
These barriers are detailed in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report, which records that 63 per cent of mothers experience negative attitudes on returning to work; 50 per cent experience problems with accessing flexible work conditions; 36 per cent reported being disadvantaged in the areas of pay, conditions and duties such as restricted access to training or missing out on a pay increment; 24 per cent were either threatened with losing or lost their jobs because they were pregnant, because their jobs were not there when they returned or because they felt so badly treated they felt they had no choice but to leave; and 22 per cent experienced barriers to breastfeeding, expressing milk or both. Clearly, all of these experiences are simply not acceptable.
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