24 August 2009

Women account for up to 80 percent of Australia’s hidden unemployed, new research into the current economic downturn by The Australia Institute reveals.
An Australia Institute report launched on 24 August at the Industrial Relations Society World Congress in Sydney, details the staggering
gender imbalance of those people who want to work, but are not included in the official unemployment statistics.
The report finds that not only are child care responsibilities the most common reason why women struggle to rejoin the workforce, but those same responsibilities are a major reason that women are excluded from the official unemployment statistics.
(more…)

Eva Cox, Chair of WEL
At last- we have a government committing to paid parental leave! This is the real good news: the government is prepared to acknowledge a clear unequivocal financial relationship between the workplace and parenting. This is the first time that there will be a specific publicly funded program that makes the connection explicit. We have had programs directed to reinforce the ‘choice’ of non working mothers, such as Family Tax Benefit B but not those in paid work, as even the child care funding also covers those who are not employed.This connection needs to be celebrated as a basic shift in the political perception of legitimate time off for the care of others. It has been a long time coming as shown by two near misses; one under Keating and another the Baby Bonus, Both converted a maternity leave possibility into a welfare payment for all mothers. This time it is clearly labelled leave and has a workforce entitlement component. Hooray!
(more…)