Speech delivered by Gillian Lewis Coles, President BPW South Australia
to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into paid maternity leave hearing Adelaide, 28 May 2008
BPW Australia is the Australian arm of Business and Professional Women International which represents the interests of all working women across the world to the UN and governments, whether they work in corporate, small business, rural or government sectors.
BPW Australia is associated with the Security4Women National Secretariat that researched and produced the Ôwhat women wantÕ report. BPW Australia will be following up this presentation with a written submission.
BPW Australia represents the interests of working women across Australia and takes the voices of women to government policy makers
á and these voices are increasingly saying that Australia should catch up with the rest of the world and offer paid maternity leave to women in the workforce.
á BPW has been campaigning for paid maternity leave since the HREOC recommendations on pregnancy and productive late last century
Working women across Australia need paid maternity leave.
á Not just women who work in large corporations or wealthy institutions.
á Not just women who work in government or senior and professional women who can negotiate such terms.
á Paid maternity leave needs to be made available to women in factories, women working in small businesses that make up such a large sector of our workforce and women running those businesses.
And Australia needs its working women to have paid maternity leave.
By this, we mean a period of 14 weeks or more with a guaranteed income and a right to return to work at the end of it, not just a one-off payment to cover some of the expenses of having a baby.
á Paid maternity leave constitutes a productivity and income support measure
á It is not a welfare measure.
BPW is not asking for something new or novel
á Australian families need the same societal supports as those the rest of the world has taken for granted for many years.
á A South Australian BPW member received paid maternity leave when she had her first child about 45 years ago in the UK
á Even most developing nations have paid maternity leave
o Burkina Faso has had paid maternity leave for decades
á The USA does not federally legislate paid maternity leave
o but 5 US states provide for 12 weeks government funded maternity leave
á NZ introduced paid maternity leave funded from general taxation in 2002.
á This leaves Australia as the only developed nation that has neither state nor national provision for paid maternity leave.
BPW supports paid maternity leave as one of a suite of measures aimed at supporting families,
á along with family friendly workplaces, accessible and affordable quality childcare and other community supports
Although paid maternity leave tends to be seen as Ôa women's issueÕ, it is a family issue
á men are missing out on having the family they want because their partners cannot access paid maternity leave
á a male partnersÕ unstable casual or contract employment can be a big deciding factor in family formation
o and Ôwaiting to see if the job situation improvesÕ can mean long delays
o so it is not simply about women delaying babies for their careers
á paid maternity leave is designed to benefit children, not their parents
o whereas the baby bonus is designed to benefit parents
á paid maternity leave is about taking the time to give the next generation a good start
o whereas the baby bonus is about decorating the nursery
AustraliaÕs fertility rate is below the replacement level of 2.1 and remains fairly stagnant at between 1.7 and 1.8
á The age of first births is rising, and there are fewer second babies.
á demographic reports in the 1980s predicted the current small rise in fertility rates
o the 1950s baby boom resulted in an Ôecho boomÕ as baby boomers reproduced in the 1970s and 1980s
o demographers predicted a Ôsecond echoÕ when this generation reached their mid 20s but the change in socio-economic circumstances delayed that until their 30s – which is about now
o if the predicted Ôsecond echoÕ and the significant increase in births through assisted reproductive medicine were removed from the statistics, the actual increase in the fertility rate may well be negligible
The Productivity CommissionÕs Issues Paper dismisses AustraliaÕs fertility decline as irrelevant to the paid maternity leave debate and declares that paid maternity leave would not increase fertility
á this is not borne out by BPWÕs research or feedback from BPW members
á women seek employers who offer paid maternity leave.
Anecdotal evidence from our members
Liz would not have Adam were it not for paid maternity leave provided by her employer
á she may have had her first child without paid maternity leave, but certainly not her second
á Liz used her long service leave for her first baby and paid maternity leave for her second.
Olivia was required by her employer to be accessible immediately after the birth
á she therefore worked from home for 6 weeks, and then returned to full time office-based employment
á her husband is taking long service leave to help care for the child
á the baby will have to enter childcare at 3 months
Karen had to wait for her leave to accrue before she could plan to have a child
á Karen went back to work before her baby was 5 weeks old, because she did not have paid maternity leave, which is distressing her
á her husband has taken time off work to help because his job is precarious and hers is stable
á Karen has just changed jobs to an employer who offers flexible working arrangements and reasonable hours of work, which will allow her to spend the time with her young baby that she knows he needs for his health and development
á this new employer also offers paid maternity leave, which Karen believes may allow her to have a second child
á Karen could never have contemplated a second child if she remained with her first employer.
Businesses offer paid maternity leave for productivity reasons – attracting and retaining staff and being an employer of choice
á if the government funded paid maternity leave for 14 weeks, businesses who already offer paid maternity leave would offer extended leave or top-up payments to match salary to maintain their business advantage
á delayed fertility means greater reliance on IVF
o IVF is time-consuming and stressful on both partners, potentially impacting on their productivity
There needs to be a separate program that supports family formation for those not in the workforce.
BPW AustraliaÕs research indicates that:
á men and women are having less children than they say they want
á Australians too often delay child-bearing - chasing financial security, believing that women's fertility extends for longer than it does
á responsible young women want and need to be financially secure and in a stable relationship before they start a family,
o but in an employment and social environment of casual and contract jobs, long or variable working hours and lack of independence make it difficult to decide to form a family.
á the precarious nature of employment – especially if it is the male who is casual or on contract – is a major determining factor in whether a couple can contemplate a family
Couples are making decisions about whether to have a family based on socio-economic factors
á couples are finding it difficult to make a financially safe space in their lives to take the time to have a baby,
o they are juggling the pressures of study and work, building two careers, and paying a mortgage and HECS debts
á working women find it hard to legitimately take time out for childbirth
o and believe that government funded and endorsed paid maternity leave would legitimise and normalise taking time to focus properly on their physical recovery from the birth and the childÕs early development needs
o without feeling as though they had Ôwimped out on workÕ
Societal and economic factors impact on decisions about family formation
á Times have changed;
o it is harder for younger people to plan to have children.
o one wage used to be enough to pay a mortgage, and in earlier decades young people left home and were independent early.
á Many couples find the personal and financial cost of one partner being out of the workforce, even for a short period, make family formation too difficult
á The lack of policies and programs to support women taking time out to have babies adds to the difficulty
á International medical and social evidence indicates 6 months paid maternity leave is most appropriate for both the baby and the parents;
o in genuinely family-friendly countries, 6 months paid maternity leave is becoming the norm
o and is paired with policies and programs such as affordable childcare and school-based vacation programs
AustraliaÕs low fertility rate is a societal issue and needs a societal response - women cannot fix it on their own.
All Australians have a role in funding the next generation, and all Australians benefit
á parents pay significant amounts of money to raise children,
o for up to 25 years if they take on tertiary study
á government funded paid maternity leave requires all Australians, whether parents or not, to contribute to the first 14 to 26 weeks of those 25 years at a minimal amount;
o a good start for children is worthy of societyÕs support
á this is a reasonable expectation –
o for many decades all Australians have paid for the army reserve for the defence of our country
o surely our society should equally contribute to giving the next generation a healthy start in life
á parents contribute enormously to providing the trained employees and sustainable business owners that will pay the taxes and staff the facilities that all Australians will need as they age and retire.