Families

Where are the women warriors on Paid Maternity Leave? The most extensive, economically significant policy proposal to support working women in decades is put forward by a major political party… so where are the feminists and women’s groups?

Why is there such a conspicuous silence from those who “whooped” and figuratively threw streamers when the Rudd Government finally announced its Paid Parental Leave plan (which turned out to be little more than a re-badging of the baby bonus with an administrative nightmare for small business thrown in)?

Where are Eva Cox and Sharan Burrows? 

Continue reading "I am woman, no comment." »

When Tony Abbott announced his paid parental leave policy on Monday, I – like many of those at the International Women’s Day celebration hosted by Manly Council – was taken by surprise. For the 15 minutes before he took my place on the podium, I had been speaking about the challenges Australia faces in creating a society that better values children, and in particular the need to better support the critical dual contribution of mothers in exercising their skills within the workplace and nurturing the next generation of Australians at home. 

Much has been written this week around the pros and cons of Tony’s policy, most of it scathing and very little of it constructive. What impressed me were his opening remarks that seem to have been lost amid the frenzied discussion his announcement generated in the media.

Having been associated with the infamous statement back in 2002 that compulsory paid maternity leave would be introduced ‘over this government’s dead body’, I was heartened to hear Tony’s admission that he had since learnt, from research and a variety of sources close to him, the critical importance of the early years and the attachment of mother and baby in laying the foundations for the social and economic future of the nation.

Continue reading "Maternity leave: why progress depends on values" »

Which political leader has just adopted a policy to champion the rights of working women underpinned by progressive taxation? Not the Social Democrat, Kevin Rudd, but the Conservative, Tony Abbott.

I have dumped on the term ’progressive’ in a previous Punch piece, but I suspect that’s how many would have described Tony Abbott’s maternity leave policy if it had been announced by Kevin Rudd.

You will like Tony Abbott’s policy if you accept the importance of parental engagement with a child in the first year of that child’s life. The policy with the longer period of paid maternity leave is a better policy.

Continue reading "Abbott the progressive?" »

Be afraid, be very afraid. The food Nazis are on the hunt through suburban school lunch boxes. Food is no longer a private matter in our educational institutions; parents are quaking in their shoes, terrified that they will be judged on the efficacy of their social responsibility and parenting skills by the contents of the humble pail. 

The fallout of which means becoming social pariahs based on white bread, or the inclusion of a Tim Tam.

Teachers peer beneath the lids of the not so humble receptacles (very seldom now a simple plastic box – they’re now themed, decorated, iced, chilled, heated, layered, compartmentalised and sheathed) and “tut tut”, or shake their heads at a child’s humble peanut butter sandwich or limp carrot.

Continue reading "Food allergy fascists make peanuts of us all" »

The arrival of a newborn child does strange things to people. It warps their perspective and clouds their judgement — and that’s to say nothing of sleep-deprived new parents. Instead, it’s a conclusion I’ve reached by reading commentators and readers of opinion websites.

Take, for example, Carrie Miller’s offering in yesterday’s edition of The Punch. While Miller had a point about overbearing middle-class parents, she sounded like a child who needs a spell on the naughty step by likening child-bearing to ‘a banal biological tradition driven by the baser instincts inherent in animals’. 

Miller isn’t alone in reducing childbearing to nothing more than ‘biological tradition’. Over at Fairfax’s competitor to The Punch, the National Times, recent articles about the behaviour of harried parents and their prams provoked comments from readers arguing that children are nothing than a lifestyle choice.

Continue reading "A message to the selfish: children are a public good" »

Some time in 2003, John Howard bowed to the bleeding obvious when he formally declared the Work/Family issue to be a barbecue stopper. In the end, though, Mr Howard chose to do nothing to help Australian barbecues run more smoothly.

Indeed, his WorkChoices adventure dramatically reduced the capacity of Australians to balance their lives with the demands of paid work. Leave entitlements were jeopardised, the power of employers to impose particular rostering arrangements was enhanced, and job security plummeted.

At about the same time, Tony Abbott showed similar disdain for working families when he promised that a paid maternity leave scheme would happen over their Government’s “dead body”.

Continue reading "A real agenda for work and family" »

On our summer holidays we had a baby.

And with the joy of Georgia’s arrival managing the night has reached a new level of complexity. For parents of young families this is one of the great challenges of life.

Night feeds, bad dreams, wet beds and sleep walking have been part and parcel of the night shift in our house for more than a decade now. Yet of the four children easily the busiest at night, at least for now, has been Harvey.

Continue reading "A night with Harvey" »

So that was January. And around Australia, families are coming to terms with the knowledge that the festive puppy they bought little Timmy is still resisting all forms of house training, and has grown a uniquely virulent form of mange.

Unsurprisingly then, we’re seeing a smattering of tales in suburban newspapers about the saddening, cruel and generally scumbaggy practice of pet dumping.

The Albert and Logan News reports a pet shop in that neck of Brisbane has been getting its fair share of unwanted waifs. Dumped creatures of the past four years have included doves, guinea pigs, chickens and even a 6ft coastal carpet python.

Continue reading "Suburban tales: pythons, horses heads and strippers" »

The recent call by Dr John Irvine to consider charging parents for crimes committed by children under the age of 10 highlights a fundamental social challenge. 

Juvenile crime and delinquency is a growing problem within our schools and the wider community – costing millions of dollars each year.  Recent Bureau of Crime and Statistics research indicates a 44% rise in juvenile offences since 2001.

Dr Irvine thinks that the ability to charge parents for the crimes their offspring commit “would help” and therefore it’s certainly worthy of debate and discussion. It’s hard to dispute his assertion that the Labor Government is too soft when it comes to dealing with the guardians of troubled children under 10.

Continue reading "How can we legislate against loveless and lawless parents?" »

WHILE the world has been stewing over greenhouse gases and the impact of climate change at Copenhagen, the steamy affairs of Tiger Woods have been fogging up computer screens as every day more details of his antics off the green are revealed.

Since being hurt in a mystery car crash just over two weeks ago, the golf superstar’s torrid string of girlfriends has provided a steady diet of sex and athletic prowess to tantalise readers more than any Mills and Boon novel.

What has been just as fascinating is how Tiger’s reported extra-curricular activities have polarised comments on online news sites. The saga appears to have triggered a gender divide among many readers.

Continue reading "Men and women on Tiger Woods" »

With struggling Aussie families paying consistently more for their food and groceries than other developed countries we need to take a long hard look at what’s causing the problem.

First, compare Australia to other OECD countries and there is one fact that jumps out. Australia has one of the most highly concentrated grocery sectors in the developed world.

Just two players – Coles and Woolworths – control 87% of supermarkets over 2000 square metres. They are increasing their share of fresh food, liquor, petrol and now hardware. Their tentacles spread to mobile phones, banking services and electronics. They own enough poker machines to put Las Vegas Casinos to shame.

Continue reading "We need action not excuses from the supermarket duopoly" »

Since recently becoming a mother, I seem to have developed an obsession with cake. And it has nothing to do with knowing I should really shun chocolate éclairs if I’m going to fit into a pre-baby size 10 again.

No, what I’ve been grappling with is my determination to have it all when it comes to balancing family and work. The desire to return to my stressful, you’d-have-to-be-mad-to-work-here job without relinquishing the joys and challenges of my newfound role as a parent.

So there it is in all its unfashionable, unrealistic glory: the desire to want the proverbial cake and eat it too.

Continue reading "Sniping at working mothers is no solution at all" »

Roll up, roll up. The Show is coming to town.

Last weekend it was the good citizens of Castlemaine who had the opportunity to witness the quality of the field in the bacon carcass competition. While next weekend Murwullimbah will have its chance to put on display the very finest in poultry that its region has to offer.

Late spring is the height of Show season and a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Royal Geelong Show. I was there both as a local politician and the parent of three eager kids capable of sniffing out show bags, prizes and sugary treats with the efficiency of feeding piranhas.

Continue reading "Roll up, roll up: our love affair with shows" »

Treasury secretary Ken Henry should spend less time hanging around with hairy-nosed wombats and more time talking to working families in suburban Sydney.

That’s not to bag wombats, especially hairy-nosed ones. Nor to question the right of anyone to take a holiday, and to do what they like with their leave.

As Dr Henry said last year amid criticism of his five-week wombat-rescuing odyssey into Queensland’s far-flung Epping Forest National Park, there are 10 times as many pandas in China as there are hairy-nosed wombats in Australia.

Continue reading "Ken’s muddle-headed car tax will hit Labor’s Sydney seats" »

The planned rollback of the controversial Shared Parenting Law is not an attack on men’s rights. Nor is it a victory for the women’s movement.

It is a sensible response to the plight of children like Darcey Freeman, who was allegedly thrown from the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne. Rather than getting into the he said/she said of this prickly debate, this is the story of one man – a war veteran - who believes his grandchildren are at risk.

His letter was part of a submission to Attorney-General Robert McClelland, which concludes “it is relatively rare for a court to make an order that denies a parent contact with a child, including in cases involving allegations of violence”.  You can read it here:

Continue reading "Harrowing letter explodes the family law debate" »

What the hell was that? As a parent with a child in school for the first time I have just withstood a round of what I suspect will become the regular school holiday juggle.

After taking one week’s leave the battle-plans were laid out: a day with said child in the office, play dates lined up, grandparents locked in – and then she gets sick meaning the fragile house of cards came tumbling down.

It’s a simple rule of math really, schoolkids have around 12 weeks of holidays each year while their parents average four - that’s a lot of time when households are juggling care.

Continue reading "Juggling family life - how leave doesn’t add up" »

You aren’t allowed to smack your partner, so why should you be allowed to smack your child?

It also makes no sense to me to declare war on thugs in the street and yet still allow parents to hit their kids.

This is particularly the case when it’s done with a blunt wooden object rather than just a hand.

Continue reading "Wooden spooning is assault, no back chat" »

It’s about time I came clean. Some 31 years ago I masterminded an elaborate swindle involving the starving kiddies of Africa and some of my closest family and friends where I fraudulently solicited $17 by falsely claiming to have completed the World Vision 40-Hour Famine.

In truth I only completed some four hours of the famine which, from memory, started just after breakfast on a Saturday morning, and immediately fell apart shortly afterwards at the Unley Oval, home ground of Adelaide’s Sturt Football Club.

I wrongly told Dad and Uncle Bruce that I had to go to the merchandise caravan to buy another badge for my duffle coat (with Phil 16 Heinrich stitched on the back in blue letters) but snuck off instead to the rear of what is now the Jack Oatey Stand where they used to make the greatest steak sandwiches in recorded human history.

Continue reading "A grand old flag: the emblem of the teams we love" »

I was going to take my six-year-old boy to the soccer on Friday night, but I decided not to. After what I witnessed at the Adelaide United - Melbourne Victory game at Hindmarsh Stadium, I doubt we’ll go to a game together this season. And that should be a huge concern for Adelaide United and the A-League.

In the end, I decided to go with a couple of mates, and keep one eye on the match and one eye on the hardcore fans that are a giving the sport I love such a bad name.

I took a seat in the southern grandstand, behind the Adelaide ``ultras’‘. I deliberately chose that spot so I could keep an eye on any trouble, but there were many young families around me who just had the misfortune to be sitting near the idiots.

The first thing that hits you is the swearing. While you still occasionally hear older supporters at footy games telling young hotheads to ``mind your language’‘, that’s not the case at the soccer.

Continue reading "The myth that soccer is a family-friendly sport" »

A few weeks ago I had one of my worst days as a new MP. A woman came to see me in my office in Caringbah in southern Sydney and told me the appalling story of how her child was being exposed to pornography by the child’s own father.

The child is less than five years old. I won’t go into the other details for risk of identifying the individuals involved, but rest assured it would make the most tolerant and liberal thinking of readers angry and sick.

What is worse is that as we looked to see what remedies were available to help this mum protect her child, we found there were none – and the police confirmed as much to her.

Continue reading "Protect kids from porn in the family home" »

“What about the children starving in Africa?”

I’d get that a lot when growing up if I didn’t finish the food on offer.  I suppose I am not alone in that memory.  But, like the food itself, it was a throwaway line.

For my generation, who have since become parents themselves, was it an effective call to act?  While over-ordering takeaway, because we are consumed by watching Masterchef - a show that taunts and rejects food - the same day that 25,000 children die from poverty-related causes - I think not.

Continue reading "The volunteer gene is facing extinction" »

Does anyone else find it quite frankly perverse that in affluent first-world Australia so much time is spent fretting about the supposed weight problems of our children when UNICEF figures show five thousand kids across the globe die every day essentially because they can’t get a clean glass of water?

I sure as hell do. But here we go again. Last week the Rudd Government’s Preventative Health Task Force Report called for a ban on junk food advertising on TV before 9:00pm and for the use of toys, cartoon characters and celebrities that appeal to children to be phased out. But the Australian Communications and Media Authority is against the banning of those TV ads.

The reaction? A seething white-hot fury coming from nice middle class homes all over Sydney. How can anyone possibly put corporate profits before our kids’ health?

Continue reading "Junk food doesn’t make kids fat - junk parents do" »

When it comes to the private conduct of public figures, Australians like to have it a bob each way. And that’s not an oblique reference to one of our most accomplished prime ministers both in the parliament and the bedroom.

As a general statement, we say that we don’t much care whether our politicians are cheating on their partners. It’s a badge of honour for us that we’re not like the United States, where the moral majority wields tremendous influence within politics and any hint of infidelity will destroy a career.

Australians just shrug their shoulders and say: well, nobody’s perfect, politicians are human too. You can spare us the lectures from the holy-rollers, most of whom will eventually be sprung inside a $55-a-night Formula One motor inn dressed as Shirley Temple.

Continue reading "Do Australians care if politicians fool around?" »

Of all the silly moments in his career, Sylvester Stallone’s turn in Demolition Man as a good-cop-turned-bad who is incarcerated, cryogenically frozen and then thawed out to fight his nemesis, serial killer Wesley Snipes, must rank as the high point of Sly’s cinematic stupidity.

There is however one accidentally prescient moment in the movie - in the futuristic dystopia of Los Angeles, a war within capitalism has left Taco Bell as the last corporation standing.

Substitute the word Woolworths for Taco Bell and you could film Demolition Man II in Australia. On current projections, by 2015 Woolies will have bought the NRL and AFL, the excellent Lebanese food chain Brothers Kebabs and the popular rock bands Powderfinger and The Veronicas.

Continue reading "Our dirty secret: we actually love massive supermarkets" »

Close examination of the Rudd Government’s much-touted childcare reforms brings to mind the wonderful quote by Milton Friedman “the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem”.

In this case, it may in fact be worse.

Labor’s proposals for more highly qualified staff in all childcare services, and lower child:staff ratios in the name of “quality care” are, on the face of it, very worthy.  What self-respecting human being doesn’t want the very best for our children?  How can an emphasis on “quality” be anything but laudable?

Continue reading "Future of childcare: where have all the parents gone?" »

WHILE the Federal Government was quick to rule out speculation earlier this week that it was considering a capital gains tax on the family home, those reports would have sent a chill to the heart of many home-owners, particulary at a time when the International Monetary Fund is specifically advocating just such a tax.

And those who tend to scepticism - probably most of us - when it comes to such government “reassurances” may have derived little comfort from the denials. Especially as Treasurer Wayne Swan refuses to rule out the prospect of a tax on the rising value of family homes.

But what about the issue itself? Should we be outraged at the suggestion of a tax on this particular form of capital appreciation – particularly if it were to be levied, as has been suggested, only on the owners of the most expensive homes.

Continue reading "Should we pay capital gains tax on the family home?" »

One in six people in this country will encounter problems conceiving and need medical assistance to have a child.

It’s a startling figure and it probably explains why most of us know someone who has struggled to start or add to a family.

In the past there was little that could be done for these couples, but thankfully science has provided options that many only dreamed of previously. Sadly it seems the Government is about to take those options away from many Australians.

Continue reading "IVF for the rich and infertility for the rest" »

Of the sixty-eight squillion pieces of advice doled out to pregnant women, perhaps the most useless is the message to stop playing competitive sports. While the advice is well intended, it’s completely unrealistic given that pregnancy itself has become a competitive sport.

The sport of pregnancy is complex and not for the faint-hearted. There are a number of fast-changing rules that change depending on the context. First, there are the weight trials. This can take one of two forms. The first form is the competition to see who can put on the least amount of weight during their pregnancy.

My wife Kasey first became aware of this one when she caught up with a former school friend for coffee who breezily confided ‘I only put on 10 kilos when I was pregnant’.

Continue reading "Pregnancy has become a competitive sport" »

I was 25 when my father first told me he was a spy.

It was 1977, and I was in New York as a tourist, on my first visit to the United States, and Dad was living in Washington.

I had not seen him since 1971, when I had spent two months with him and my stepmother travelling around Mongolia, where he was then Britain’s Ambassador. We were not estranged: we had just been living or working in different parts of the globe throughout that time.

Continue reading "The spy who loved me: how Dad came in from the cold" »

When the delegates at the ALP National Conference sat down on Saturday to discuss the issue of same-sex marriage, there’s one question that should have loomed large in their minds: “Which side of history do you want to be on?”

Despite the result, same sex marriage is inevitable in Australia - and a quick analysis of two factors makes this blindingly obvious. The first is the international situation.  Seven countries have now introduced same-sex marriage, along will six states of the USA.  Just like so many other waves of social reform before it (giving women the vote, decriminalizing homosexuality, etc.) same-sex marriage will spread throughout the western, liberal democracies eventually reaching Australia.
 
The second factor that makes same-sex marriage inevitable is the demographics. 

Continue reading "Gay marriage - which side of history is Labor on?" »

David Penberthy and others on The Punch have written about the issue of gay marriage recently. His argument was, essentially, that there are lots of bad traditional marriages and there would be some good gay marriages therefore we shouldn’t be worried about gay marriage.

While a lot of people may agree and leaving aside the fact that there would also be a lot of bad gay marriages, it’s not particularly good logic. It fails to discuss the nature of marriage and its purpose.

Is marriage perfect? Of course not. But mere imperfection of itself is not an argument for its removal or significant change.

Continue reading "There’s no logical reason to allow gay marriage" »

An American company has announced that it will now make available in Australia kits that will let parents test their children for drug use.

The drug testing kits use samples of hair to test what drugs and how often kids could be using them.

The company, Confirm Biosciences, has circulated a statement claiming that the new kits will put “control back in parents’’ hands

Continue reading "Should parents be testing kids for drugs in the home?" »

The two greatest experiences of my life occurred in a birthing suite.

The birth of a new baby is an exhilarating experience that produces emotions from deep within your soul.

Yet somehow I think the emotions that child birth produces in woman are even more significant.  Obviously pregnancy causes massive physical change but less obvious is the enormous emotional change having a baby ushers in.

Continue reading "Defending the right of Mums to have a safe home birth" »

Narre Warren party animal Corey Worthington has almost completely faded from national memory. Which is a shame, as the kid should at least be remembered for one thing - impeccable comic timing.

One of the finest exchanges of modern television was young Corey’s droll quip to a frustrated Leila McKinnon on A Current Affair when, having banged her head against a brick wall trying to get sense out of this mop-headed ratbag, she asked “ Well finally Corey what would you say to other kids who are thinking about partying when their parents are out of town?”

After a perfect two-second pause Corey replied: “Get me to do it for you.”

Continue reading "The kids are alright, some parents should be grounded" »

A few days ago, I was part of a group of 6 economists who wrote an open letter arguing for a new Inquiry into the financial system—a so-called “Son of Wallis, Daughter of Campbell.”

Put simply, so much had changed in our understanding of finance, banking and economics and so much ‘on the fly’ policy had been undertaken, that surely stepping back and reviewing our policies above the political fray would be a good idea.

We had hoped that this might get a little media and perhaps push the government into putting an inquiry onto the agenda. Our letter was a long and not particularly reader-friendly affair. But towards the end we asked the following:

Continue reading "Mad furore surrounding the so-called “people’s bank”" »

Ever wondered how a Government kills off an embarrassing policy failure? Well, we saw a textbook example one late Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago.

With news bulletins around the world full of stories about Michael’s Jackson’s death, Federal Competition and Consumer Affairs Minister Dr Craig Emerson put out a media release announcing the demise of GroceryChoice, the Government’s flawed website for “watching” grocery prices.

So there you have it. Pick a late Friday afternoon, preferably when there’s some big news story taking up everyone’s attention and quietly send out a media release putting the best possible spin on your Government’s policy disaster. Every Government tries it on and it’s amazing how they think that no one will notice.

Continue reading "How the feds fitted up Choice over grocery shambles" »

No pay rise and no relief on the mortgage. It hasn’t been a banner day for Kevin Rudd’s working families. But that’s the price of prudence.

The Reserve Bank’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 3 per cent was no real surprise. Not much has changed since the nine board members’ last met in June, certainly nothing to convince them that the time was right for a little extra economic stimulation.

The Fair Pay Commission’s decision to deny Australia’s 1.3 million battlers a pay rise was a little more unexpected. The ACTU argued strongly for another $21-a-week hike to the minimum wage.

Continue reading "No payrise, no rates cut, no joy for working families" »

One positive feature of the dying days of the Howard Government was the cross party work among female MPs.

Sisters were doing it for ourselves - uniting on issues ranging from stem cell research to the removal of the restrictions on RU486; from changing the foreign aid funding criteria to seeking to ensure transparent advertising of pregnancy counselling.

We co-sponsored bills and held meetings, did the numbers and organised media.It was a rare but enjoyable and mostly successful example of networking among women of different parties, all driven by a commitment to issues affecting women. However, we were unable to attract overt cross-party support on the issue of Paid Maternity Leave (PML).

Continue reading "A belated, qualified victory for working mothers" »

As of yesterday about one-million hard-working Australians discovered that Kevin Rudd’s campaign promise to stand up for “working families” came with an invisible asterisk.

The asterisk denotes - “promise does not include all working families”.

Especially those families who work a little bit too hard, who pay a higher rate of tax because they hold more senior jobs, work longer hours, have taken risks starting businesses, employing other people, and have got themselves into a position where with their super, their private health care, their choice of hospitals and schools, they are constantly taking pressure off the public system.

Continue reading "Class war budget betrays hardest-working families" »