Mums must come back to work

    PHILLIP HUDSON
    The Australian
    April 25, 2014


MUTUAL obligation conditions will be placed on the government’s paid parental leave scheme to require women to return to work as Joe Hockey tries to make the controversial policy part of a wider jobs compact.

There will also be a campaign to encourage employers to change their attitudes about employing people in their 50s and 60s, with the Treasurer confirming yesterday that it was inevitable the pension age would rise to 70 for the next generation.      

Mr Hockey’s first budget will be built around the theme that “every generation” should work. “For younger Australians, you’re either going to have to learn or earn. For middle-aged Australians, we need you in work, and for older Australians we want you to have the opportunity to work,” he said yesterday.

Mr Hockey continued to defend the $5.5 billion-a-year paid parental leave scheme, which provides 26 weeks’ pay at a mother’s full wage, up to $150,000 a year, even after releasing a table from the Commission of Audit report that revealed it was among the largest and fastest growing commonwealth spending schemes.

Combined with childcare, the cost to taxpayers rises from $7bn a year to $21bn a year across the next decade — an average annual growth rate of 11.5 per cent.

The Treasurer revealed that the yet-to-be-written legislation for the parental leave policy would have a “mutual oblig­ation” clause.

“Essentially they have to return to work. When you see the legislation it will be clear, there will be a form of obligation,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.

It appears this could go further than some existing private-sector enterprise agreements, which require a conversation about a possible return-to-work plan.

But while he justified the parental leave policy, Mr Hockey stepped up his warnings about the rising cost of Medicare and hospitals, which are also among the fastest growing schemes, but not as rapid as parental leave.

The cost of Medicare benefits rises from an annual $19bn to almost $38bn a year for an average annual growth rate of 7.1 per cent. Hospitals will cost the budget $14bn this year and close to $38bn in 2023-24 — a 10.4 per cent average annual growth rate.

The Treasurer said the cost of the hospital system was growing at “three times the speed of the economy” and Medicare at twice the rate.

Mr Hockey confirmed co-payments and means testing were on the way, rejecting criticism about charging people $6 for a visit to a GP.      

Using his new phrase that “nothing is free”, Mr Hockey said his North Sydney electorate had one of the highest bulk-billing rates in the country but was one of the nation’s wealthiest.

“For me there is something wrong with that,” he said, signalling the government had a plan to counter people overloading hospital emergency departments to avoid a GP co-payment.

Mr Hockey said changes in the budget would be made across 10 years and some as far out as 2050 because of costs associated with an ageing population as one in every three children born today would live to 100. “We should celebrate the fact that we are living longer,” he said.

He admitted manual workers might not be able to continue their jobs until age 70 but said they could “restart” their careers at 45, 50 or 55. “The suggestion that life ends when you turn 65 is ridiculous, but we have got to change the culture of the nation to facilitate older workers.”      

The government will release the Commission of Audit report and its 86 recommendations next Thursday and says there are some proposals it will accept, some it will reject.

Bill Shorten said the government would use the Commission of Audit as an alibi to break promises. Opposition finance spokesman Tony Burke criticised the paid parental leave policy paying up to $75,000 to millionaires to have a baby while cutting pensions and benefits.      

“It’s a scheme that delivers the opposite of means testing ... the more you earn, the more you get,” he said.

Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie warned against a 1.75 per cent cap on government spending — as proposed by the commission and cited by Mr Hockey — saying once population growth was taken into account it “would freeze spending for a decade”.

“That means a 10-year freeze in government benefits and services everyone relies upon, including basic health services, pensions, benefits, community services and schools,” she said.

She called for a cut to superannuation tax concessions that favoured top wage earners

Mr Hockey’s first budget will be built around the theme that “every generation” should work. “For younger Australians, you’re either going to have to learn or earn. For middle-aged Australians, we need you in work, and for older Australians we want you to have the opportunity to work,” he said yesterday.  Can you tell us Mr Hockey, where are all these jobs going to come from?                              

What happens if the mother doesn't return to work for some reason and how long would they have to return to work one week, one year.

The Devil wrote on Apr 25^th, 2014 at 7:40am:


There's an interesting side to this that I wonder if the pollies have even considered. What if things go wrong?
I had family leave with my second child. Because I was a teacher, this was 12 weeks paid leave and if I returned to work within 12 months, I could go back to my original workplace. After that, I could stay on leave for up to another 6 years but could be placed where the dept wanted me.

But my daughter was born with problems and spent the first 6 months of her life in hospital, having several operations. Even when she came home, there were difficulties such that none of my friends or family would have been confident to babysit or anything like that. I had regular outpatient appointments for many years.

I eventually applied to have my leave extended for another year (which they granted) and I did go back to work after that, because we needed the money by then, but in fact her outpatient appointments got a bit neglected after that as our teaching jobs were on the line so no one was game to take a day off unless they were virtually dying.

But with the best will in the world, in some circumstances a parent of a child with disabilities might find it hard to return to the workforce and I don't think they should be forced to, by being threatened with having to pay back the money.

Has anyone actually considered that instead of subsidising child care to the nth degree, there could also be a case for encouraging mothers to look after their own children till school age?

The incentive could be capped at 2 children, so that those who choose to have larger families are on their own, not endlessly subsidised.

It is like a nurse once said to me when my daughter was in intensive care-no one loves them like their own. And that is absolutely true of child care as well.

St George of the Garden wrote on Apr 25^th, 2014 at 9:51am:


It should be used to fund a raise in the No-Start rate.