Support for paid maternity leave

4 Responses to “Support for paid maternity leave”

1. Muriel on October 3rd, 2008 1:58 pm 1

   I received twelve weeks paid maternity leave twenty five years ago. This is nothing new. It is however a “rort.” It’s ridiculous. Yes, I accepted it. However, it is absolute rubbish. Employers have too many costs involved in employing people as it is. It’s not up to the employer to pay someone while they’re away having a baby. Nor is it “the govenmentt’s” responsibility.In other words, why should the tax payer be expected to foot the bill. If a woman has a baby, it’s her responsibility to bring the child up and meet the expenses along the way. How about putting the child’s needs before the mother’s “needs,” which are actually wants. I hear it all the time. “It’s my time out.” “The child is better off not with me all the time.” “It’s good for him/her to learn to socialise with other kids.:” Nonsense, nonsense, and more nonsense. Children appear to be playing WITH other children at a very young age, when in actual fact, up to a certain age, they are actually only playing ALONGSIDE other children. Mothers these days have been “brainwashed” into thinking that they should go back to work on their way home from hospital! (Well, it’s got almost like that..))Mothers, stay home with your children. You don’t NEED to work for your sanity. You probably don’t NEED to work for all the material things you think you need either. How many of these “needs” are really only wants. There are costs involved in working., and not just childcare, which i hear about all the time and how expensive it is. This is another rort - sbsidised childcare. Why should the taxpayer be paying for people who are earning huge amounts of money to have the child/children in childcare? This is an expense of being in the paid workforce. If it’s taking such a huge hunk out of your wage, why are you working. Oh, i forgot. For your snity. Give me a break. If you can’t afford to have children and look after them yourself, don’t have them.. What are you ? - just an incubator? !
2. Marie on October 3rd, 2008 2:05 pm 2

   Going from two people on two incomes to three people on one income is a big statement, is perfectly true, but isn’t that what children is about - making sacrifices. Putting your children first. I would have thought so. The family unit is being destroyed thanks to govenment policies encouraging mothers to go back to work before their milk’s come in!
3. Kim on October 4th, 2008 9:02 am 3

   A few questions. Why can’t parents be responsible for their own decisions? Why can’t parents budget prior to having their children? Why can’t families stop buying huge houses, new cars, all the latest gear until they can afford them? Why should the community pay for a mother to sit at home?
   I have a young family and I had 8 months off work - self funded by myself and my husband!! My husband did not make a huge wage then but we had a budget for a few years, even when I went back to work part time, and it worked. We didn’t starve to death, our family isn’t mentally and physically scarred because we didn’t have the biggest TV and the most gadgets in the street. Take some responsibility for your decisions Australia, like our parents and grandparents did - and they survived.
   One last question - What do small business owners think of paid maternity leave?
4. Ingrid on October 7th, 2008 7:54 pm 4

   So Muriel because you found it absolutely ridiculous and a rort, what did you do with the 12 weeks of paid leave? Donate it to charity? Give it back to your employer?

   I consider myself one of the lucky ones I received paid maternity leave from my employer and 12 months on I am still at home looking after my little one. This was a joint decision made by partner and myself. Luckily I have the security of knowing that my job is open for me to return for another 12 months - which is great if we find that financially we are really starting to struggle. I absolutely agree that babies need their parents but I don’t agree that all women are making the decision to go back to work based on selfish needs. A lot of people cannot financially afford to stay at home.

   I can tell you now that every cent of the baby bonus we received went towards providing and caring for our baby. We don’t have any expensive gadgets, plasma screens and we don’t live in a big house. We aren’t poor but we are far from loaded. We are surviving. We are not getting in front.

   I think the statement going from two incomes to one income has been taken out of context, I don’t think it’s meant to come across as a sacrifice, I think it’s just recognising that it is a big adjustment going from a double income no kids situation to suddenly managing on one income with one or more kids.

   As for paying for ‘mothers to sit around at home’ well, gee, I’m a little bit offended by that comment. I don’t know about you Kim, but I certainly take the role of being a full time mother seriously, it is now my full time job – I can’t remember the last time I just sat around at home! The whole concept of paid maternity leave is recognising that women need time to bond with their baby, recover from childbirth and learn to breastfeed effectively (if possible). The reality is that in this day and age women work and women need to work and the government is acknowledging that. By introducing a paid maternity scheme they are also recognising that it is fundamentally important for women (or men) to stay at home and bond with their baby in the early months. It is not a luxury or a holiday.

   This isn’t our parents or our grandparents’ era – We value the level of maternal care they invested in raising families and we would like to apply these values today. However, in most average Australian families, there is a necessity for both parents to work. Perhaps we shouldn’t look at this as a government handout but as a government investment towards our next generation getting the best start to life possible. I don’t think the attitude ‘they went without, therefore we should’ is going to benefit anyone.

   In regards to tax payer’s paying for this scheme well I’d be angrier about our taxes paying for treatment for patients with self-induced weight, tobacco or drug/alcohol related illnesses.

   I know that small business owners do it tough but the Govt would be paying the wage, they, however, would have to cover the super contributions which would be capped.
   For those that really have a vested interest I suggest you read the Productivity Commission’s draft report – at least then informed opinions can be made. I attach the link
   http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/83425/parentalsupport.pdf
   I also suggest that readers look up Wikipedia paid parental leave and learn just how many countries have a paid maternity scheme in place.

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