Media Release
November 16 2007
Money can’t buy you family life...
but Labor gets the nod on family friendly policies
With just a week to run before Election Day, a group of academic
experts, the
Work and
Family Policy Roundtable, has assessed that the Labor Party’s work
and family policies are more “substantial”, “comprehensive” and
“generous” than those of the Liberal National Party Coalition.
The roundtable, made up of 11 academic experts in work and family issues from eight Australian universities, concluded that while the election presented a major opportunity to renovate Australia’s work and Family arrangements to catch up with other developed counties, this had largely been passed by.
“Money in the hand through tax cuts is important for working
families, of course, but they also need flexible working conditions,
leave and better services like childcare,” Roundtable co-convenor from
Sydney University, Dr
Elizabeth Hill says.
“It’s disappointing that with such large surpluses, Australian mothers
are still left waiting for a national system of paid maternity leave -
unpaid leave doesn’t mean much for low income families.”
Co-convenor of the Roundtable Professor Barbara Pocock from UniSA’s Centre for Work + Life says the Roundtable’s policy assessment - made across four significant areas: childcare, working conditions, parental leave and future policy research and evaluation – showed that there were distinct differences between the two major parties.
“The Roundtable sees stark differences between the main parties on work and family issues – with the Labor Party well in front, especially on childcare, working conditions, more rights for working parents to seek flexible hours, and the announcement of a new Office for Work and Family,” Prof Pocock says.
“The fact that neither party has committed to a national system of paid maternity leave or to paid paternity leave is disappointing, especially for low income families struggling to make ends meet and have time with their children.
“There is a great deal more that could be done by both parties. However, Labor policies respond better to the strains on families and they’ve set up some long term structural responses to the issues along with practical steps on childcare and workplace flexibility.”
The roundtable measured policy promises against Election 2007 Benchmarks. The Benchmarks and assessment are available online.
Contact for interview
- Professor Barbara Pocock mobile 0414 244 604
Media contact
- Michèle Nardelli office (08) 8302 0966 mobile 0418 823 673 email michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au