As the government is being asked to rethink the ‘Baby Bonus’ I find myself asking again why we have a Baby Bonus and not government-funded paid maternity/paternity leave in the first place.
I’ve asked myself and others this for a while and no one has really been able to tell me. Unfortunately the world is filled with a lot of dumb people, and if my sisters friends are anything to go by, a lot of teenagers have an unrealistic view of the cost of living. I’d hate to actually know how many people have had a baby because they want a new TV or car.
Paid parental leave on the other-hand, allows men and women to get the financial relief to spend time with their new born whilst simultaneously discouraging the idiots on welfare who can’t even afford to support themselves who think that having a baby to get 4 or 5 grand would be really great idea!
The Australian article I linked to above is the first mention I’ve come across of the reason why we don’t have paid maternity or paternity leave…
Social demographer Peter McDonald, from ANU’s Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, said it was a mistake to see the baby bonus as a fertility booster when its original purpose was as an alternative to a paid maternity leave regime being promoted by then sex discrimination commissioner Pru Goward.
So the implication is that we don’t have paid maternity leave so as not to sexually discriminate? Ok that’s fine. How about ‘parental’ leave hey?
