Labor's cuts to parenting payments are supposed to get sole parents back into the workforce. Unfortunately, evidence suggests they'd rather suffer poverty and spend more time with their kids.
The stuff that makes good societies, communities and families tick can't always be officially valued. The problem is, welfare policies don't recognise this. Eva Cox on why income support needs an urgent rethink.
Eva Cox AO outlines her response to the Rudd Government’s announcement of a $4.8 billion dollar pension relief package which was announced as part of the October 14 2008 recession bailout. The
As Chairperson for the Women’s Electoral Lobby Australia (WELA), I’ve been heavily involved in preparing a submission for the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave.
This question is asked in the Benchmarks for Work and
Family Policies produced for the coming Federal election by a group of feminist academics, including myself. It raises the wider question of why existing policies are so weak in this area that we still need to construct tests against which to assess the parties’ proposals.
There is an urgent need for workable solutions to the many persistent problems which plague children's services in Australia. Unfortunately after an 18-month parliamentary inquiry on ‘Balancing Work and Family', the Federal Government still has not managed to address many issues
Suddenly there is interest in child care. A couple of proposals have surfaced from the back bench; one is to increase general family payments so parents ostensibly have more choice; the other is a vaguer set of claims from backbenchers that something must be done.
There are multiple crises in child care which occasionally hit the headlines. A recent story on some day care centres charging about $100 per day has started a ripple about affordability. The lack of child care places led the Federal minister last weekend to blame the state and territories’ planning, and to praise her government’s increased spending as evidence of good policy; and the PM to mutter about funding nannies.
