Having to sacrifice a proposal for one of the most generous paid parental leave schemes in the world in order to reform our childcare system seems decidedly unfair.
It shouldn’t have to be ‘either/or’ when it comes to important policies supporting women’s workforce participation.
But the reality is that future reform to our childcare system could suffer if the Abbott government’s proposed paid parental leave scheme goes ahead as planned.
The other reality is that our current PPL scheme is reasonably adequate — especially if we’re going to compare it to the woefully under-resourced childcare system.
Today, the Childcare and Early Childhood Learning draft report from the Productivity Commission recommends funds from the Abbott government’s proposed PPL scheme be rechanneled to support childcare.
It’s one of a number of measures – including offering subsidies for nannies, streamlining multiple child-based subsidies into one and offering families a rebate based on a means-tested sliding scale – that the Productivity Commission believes could make our childcare system more affordable and accessible.
The report says up to $1.5 billion a year in federal government assistance could be channeled into early childhood education and care by diverting some of the funding from the proposed new PPL scheme.
It also declares that it’s unclear how the proposed changes to our existing PPL scheme, “would bring significant additional benefits to the broader community beyond those occurring under the existing scheme”.
One of those key benefits would be an increase in women’s workforce participations and, based on my own conversations with new mothers on this very topic, I’m not convinced beefing up our existing paid parental leave scheme will help.
It’s not the amount of maternity leave a new mother gets that helps in her ‘decision’ to return to work (although some employers do request those who take such leave return for a period in order to ‘pay it back’) but rather her ability to access childcare once she’s ready to return to work, along with flexible working arrangements that suit her changed circumstances.
For new parents it’s important to remember access to flexible work is just as, if not equally, important as access to childcare. While not impossible, it’s difficult to return to work full time even six months after the birth of a new baby without some kind of flexibility being offered by the employer — especially if, as the World Health Organisation advises, you’re going to continue breastfeeding at least until the age of one. On this note, offering big businesses incentives to assist new mothers on their return to work could be more beneficial than slugging them with a new tax to pay for a paid parental leave scheme. This is especially true when you consider the fact most of these businesses are already offering some form of parental leave, and using such benefits to compete for good female talent.
The Abbott government’s proposed changes to our existing paid parental leave scheme would be a great benefit for new mums, especially those already on an above-average salary, but the proposal is not an answer to systemic-wide problems facing parents at work. And to treat it as a policy centerpiece merely distracts from the real issues affecting working parents.
The Coalition has an opportunity to seriously consider the key recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s draft report and come up with some smart policy decisions
Let’s hope it’s not too late, and that pride doesn’t stand in the way, of refocusing the discussion on what can really benefit working parents and ultimately increase women’s workforce participation.