Labor’s first budget was tipped to be a ‘bread and butter’ budget by Jim Chalmers. The ‘essentials only’, in efforts to repair the bottom line, while supporting families with rising cost of living.
But are families really supported in the face of record energy prices, rising interest rates, the prospect of job instability and inflation? The answer is no. The budget makes some great first strides and its goal to become one of the most gender equal countries in the world must be applauded, but it simply doesn’t go far enough. The knife is simply not hot enough to cut the butter, and by time we get through, the toast is cold.
Take childcare, for example. Its new subsidies, aimed to support 96 per cent of families, do not kick in until July 2023. Families are doing it tough today. Interest rates, inflation, energy prices, need I say more? Not to mention the impact this has on women who often stall their return to work until affordable childcare can be secured.
A key issue with these policies is that the bar is set so low on change that any improvement seems reason to celebrate. Australia’s childcare system is broken. Families need more affordable access to care, and we also need more childcare workers, with better pay, recognition and support. Families will not be better supported until both sides of the system are catered for. You cannot have one without the other.
Our childcare centres today are at the point of crisis, not being able to fill positions with potential staff who find more money and less responsibility in packing shelves than becoming an early childhood educator.
Cheaper childcare will be of no use when families cannot get placements. There will be no increase to the female workforce participation rate, nor an increase in the number of men who opt to balance the scales and become a stay-at-home Dad, thanks to the gender pay gap. These two elements need to be considered in unison with where the change bar really should be: we need to work towards a system where, eventually, childcare over the age of one is free.
Childcare is in fact, early childhood education – education for our nation’s future.
The numbers are big and impressive for Paid Parental Leave too – a total of $530 million towards extending it to six months. It’s a great headline. But it doesn’t deliver the actual outcomes families need. For starters, it only kicks in incrementally, when families need support now. And then there’s the amount of funds paid. PPL is paid at minimum wage, $812.45 a week. Try stretching that with nappies, weekly cans of formula, a steady stream of wet wipes, nappy rash cream, rent, groceries and bills. The maths doesn’t add up and families are still left struggling.
Sure, an argument can be made on how far governments can afford to support parental leave. But there is an easy way out that doesn’t break the bottom line: create better incentives for businesses to fund employer sponsored paid parental leave. Allow for additional tax deductions or better still, waive the PAYG for the period of time that businesses fund parental leave.
This will create an immediate cost saving, allow businesses to better attract, retain and grow their female pipeline of talent and won’t cost the government an additional cent. After all, there’s no tax receipt on zero parental leave income, so why not waive it for the employers who pay?
Small business owners would also benefit from this approach. As a business owner myself, PPL poses a question of financial hardship: ‘Do I dwindle company funds and pay for my own maternity leave, or do I live on minimum wage and barely get by with government supported PPL?’ A government incentivised approach would allow me, and other new parents, to take six months’ paid leave, earn the government supported minimum wage, and top up the rest via my company supported paid leave without breaking the bank. It’s a win-win for both.
The budget also has many issues left on the table. Superannuation payments on PPL would barely make a dent on the budget, but it would go a long way in meeting women’s superannuation gap, often at a third of men’s superannuation balances by the time of retirement. Yet the issue was left untouched.
And it seems women keep missing out. Watching the budget speech, I was pleased to see support in funding for violence against women initiatives, families and childcare. However, I earnestly waited for announcements of support for key areas in which women need additional investment: leadership, STEM and entrepreneurship. Towards the end of the speech it dawned on me, there’s nothing coming for us.
The ‘why’ of these support measures can be quantified in numbers. Women only make up less than 35% of key management personnel according to WGEA, despite being 50% of the population. Women earn less than 3% of the world’s VC capital, and Australia’s VC opportunities are slimmer still, compared to the VC global appetite.
It’s great to have support for families, but the disappointing news flash alert for Labor’s 2022 government is that not all women want to be mothers. As voting citizens, they need budgetary support too.
Shivani Gopal is the CEO and Founder at Elladex, a digital rolodex for women’s personal, professional and financial growth.