COSBOA speech: Pru Goward (2006)
The need for small business
to get behind paid maternity leave
Speech Delivered by Pru Goward,
Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner
29 May 2002
COSBOA National Small Business Summit
Rydges Lakeside, Canberra
-
Ladies and Gentlemen:
thank you for inviting me to partake in today's panel discussion. -
Thank you for
your support. -
How wonderfully
encouraged by the Prime Minister's comments last night and Minister
Hockey's comments this morning. -
First let me
say categorically that I have not and will not recommend that employers
should pay for maternity leave. -
It is one of
the mysteries of politics that this vital issue should have gotten
so tangled up with a red herring. -
Australian small
businesses need to get behind paid maternity leave. -
Why?
-
The cynics would
say "to fit the bill". -
Lets look at
the facts. -
Fact one, no
where in the developed world is paid maternity leave funded a scheme
mandating employers to directly pay employees taking maternity leave. -
This scheme of
paid maternity leave is a third world scheme. It exists in Bahrain
and Burundi - not countries with similar economic, cultural and social
structures as Australia; not countries Australia would be looking
to as 'best practice' examples. -
Fact two, women
would suffer under an employer pays scheme. Employers, especially
small business, keep tell us they would stop employing women of child
bearing age to avoid paying for maternity leave. -
That's a view
shared by the Industrial Labour Organization - not usually supportive
of business. -
Any scheme which
would result in women being further discriminated against in the workforce
is obviously unacceptable and must be avoided. -
Fact three, without
a national scheme of paid maternity in place, it is business- large
and small - that currently fits the bill for paid maternity leave. -
It is true that
the unions are mobilising for a paid maternity leave campaign. The
absence of overt government support for a national scheme, who can
blame them? -
Perhaps the Prime
Minister's comments of last night go some way to meeting union concerns. -
The introduction
of a government funded, national scheme of 14 weeks paid maternity
leave represents a small percentage of total tax revenue. -
In fact, it has
the potential to reduce costs incurred by businesses currently providing
employees with paid maternity leave. -
Small business
therefore needs to get behind paid maternity leave because it is a
cheap and effective way of providing women with support as they work
and mother - as they perform the juggle of contributing to society
as the bearers and carers of children and valued members of the workforce. -
Let me explain.
-
A basic model
of paid maternity leave will cost around $300 million. That's paying
12 weeks up to the minimum wage. -
Governments are
there to support the choices people make when those choices are of
benefit to the rest of us. When there is a national interest. We spend
millions of dollars on would-be sporting stars at the Australian Institute
of Sport, because we all like to see Australia excel at international
sporting contests, for example. -
But there can
be no greater national interest than the preservation of our families,
the continuance of families. That's why taxpayers spend $16 billion
a year on families. -
What we need
right now is a national response to our declining fertility rate;
changing families where two income earners are now the norm; we need
to become a nation that provides women with the entitlements received
by their global counterparts; and we need to support women as they
contribute to our society by performing two crucial, life-bearing,
society and economy sustaining functions. -
Paid maternity
leave alone cannot do this, but it certainly helps encourage those
many women who will only have children if they can look after them
themselves. -
Currently 46
per cent of all tertiary graduates - that includes TAFE and private
college graduates - are women. Many continue to accumulate qualifications,
as do young men, throughout their twenties. -
This education
and training represents an enormous investment of taxes as well as
a significant private investment by each young woman and often her
family. -
These young women
graduates of today are the mothers of tomorrow. -
But if we tell
them there is no support for them when they have their children, or
that there will only be support if they elect to stay home full time
for five years, then we are telling them - and ourselves - that the
enormous investment Australia has made in their education is a waste
of money. And while some young women are prepared to cop that, others
say, as they have said to me "why should I have children, I have
given up too much for this." -
These women aren't
rocket scientists and rich lawyers, they are pedicurists, policewomen,
pastry chefs. -
No wonder the
birth rate is at a record low. All over the developed world, including
in strong family values catholic countries like Portugal, Italy and
Germany, women are choosing not to have children. -
Young women know,
as you know, perhaps better than anyone, how quickly qualifications
get out of date. You know the first question you ask a would-be employee
is "when was your last job?" If it was five years ago, I
don't like their chance of that being taken on. -
A national scheme
of paid maternity leave accepts that women want to stay home for 14
weeks at least, but also want to return to work at least part time. -
Paid maternity
leave at least means she can afford to take off those first precious
months. Good for her, very good for her baby. -
Since employers
cannot prevent women from returning to work, even one week after birth,
it means employers are dealing with women workers returning to work
in early weeks, when they are vulnerable and not ready. -
Naturally we
could be more ambitious - we could give them six months paid, like
the French and British do, we could give them a year like Canada and
Sweden do, or we could match the Uruguayans and the New Zealanders,
who give them three months. We could give all Australian mothers the
same 12 weeks at full pay that Australia's Federal public servants
have enjoyed for 30 years! -
As leaders of
a vital part of the Australian economy, as the employers of 50 percent
of the workforce, your support for paid maternity leave is important. -
Of course you
are entitled to say it should not be funded by individual employers
but by the community at large - you would not get much of an argument
with that. -
But it is also
important that you publicly acknowledge, by supporting paid maternity
leave, that women are a vital part of the workforce, valued as much
for their skills, training and experience as men. -
Most important
of all, we need to accept that if these young women are to continue
to work and to have children - our future tax payers, employees, employers
and consumers - then we can no longer expect them to carry this vital
social responsibility without acknowledgement of their career or financial
responsibilities. -
Paid maternity
leave says to Australian families - we want to support Australian
families, we always have - we know Australian families have changed,
so now, the way we support them must change also. -
Paid maternity
leave has arrived - you can work with it, and win, or you can work
against it and we will all be the losers.
Last
updated 14 June 2002