BY ALISON THORNE
The "First Child Tax Rebate", the centrepiece of the Liberal Party's election launch on October 28, is, as we have come to expect from Prime Minister John Howard, anti-feminist to the core. When John Howard argues that the family is the "best welfare system" he is quite explicit about what he wants women's role in society to be: a vast pool of volunteer labour privately caring for children, the sick, people with disabilities and the elderly.
The Coalition is using a carrot-and-stick approach to achieve its misogynist goals. But as far as carrots go, this is pretty mouldy. For one thing, the better paid you are the more you get! The majority of households with a new baby will receive less than $10 extra per week. Allowing for eight hours sleep and some personal time, this values our domestic labour at just 10c per hour! It isn't a policy, it's a sexist insult.
Ever since coming to office the Howard government has advanced its agenda to force women out of the work force at every opportunity.
At the time the GST was introduced there was a major change to the way welfare assistance was paid to people with children. Prior to July 2000, a woman who temporarily ceased work in order to have children (and who was not on paid maternity leave) could get the basic parenting payment of about $65 a fortnight until she returned to work (providing her personal income for that period was minimal). Her partner's income was not considered. Sole parents automatically received an equivalent payment.
Now, to be eligible for the equivalent payment at the full rate, a woman must be out of the work force for the full financial year. If she receives the payment, and later decides to return to work, every cent must be paid back.
To minimise the political impact, Howard introduced a $1000 waiver on recovering these payments for the 2000-01 financial year. This is bad enough. However the biggest Coalition stick is the escalating cost of childcare.
The process of undermining the provision of quality public childcare began in 1991 when the federal ALP government extended the fee-relief system to cover for-profit, commercial childcare centres. Under this system, childcare users get a percentage off a scheduled fee, somewhat like Medicare. There is no relationship, however, between the scheduled fee and the actual fee charged by centres.
In the 1996 budget the Howard government chopped $40 million from childcare subsidies. In 1997 it removed the operational subsidy from public childcare centres, citing the all-too-familiar argument that it was merely "levelling the playing field" so that centres run by local councils did not have an "unfair advantage" over the commercial sector.
The result? Many public-sector centres were forced to close. Between 1997 and 1999 more than 70 closed in Victoria alone. Those which survived did so through a combination of increasing fees, cutting corners on costs or reducing working conditions.
The cost of childcare is going through the roof as subsidies fail to keep up with the fee increases. Since 1991 fees have increased 56% but fee relief has only increased by 29%. And there is a real relationship between childcare costs and usage. An Australian Services Union survey in NSW found that 83% of centres reported children withdrawing because of the cost. A 1996 report on childcare conducted by the federal government's Economic Planning Advisory Committee concluded that a 1% increase in costs would drop childcare "demand" by 10%!
In the last three years, many parents have been forced to withdraw their kids from childcare and this has a resulted in a saving to the Howard government of over $300 million. If this trend continues, it is not difficult to see how "generous John" will fund his baby bonus!
The Socialist Alliance is standing in the November election with an entirely different agenda to John Howard. Our agenda will give women real choices.
Firstly, we would immediately restore childcare subsidies. Childcare is not only a crucial service for working parents, it is important for children's social development. Childcare should be viewed as early education and funded to ensure that it is of high quality, universal and freely available.
Secondly, we would address the issues crucial to women in the work force. The Socialist Alliance has pledged to scrap all anti-union laws, to reduce working hours with no loss of pay and to end the epidemic of casualisation and outsourcing. In 1991, 20% of jobs were casual but 10 years on the figure has jumped to 27%.
More than a million women are employed on a casual basis. The Socialist Alliance will also fight for real equality of pay between men and women. Campaigning to win access to paid maternity leave is also a Socialist Alliance priority. Just one third of Australian women currently have access to any form of maternity leave.
The Socialist Alliance also stands squarely for full reproductive freedom. One of its priority pledges is to repeal all anti-abortion laws and guarantee lesbians and single women access to medically assisted conception. The right to choose has many elements and a key one is the right to choose to be a mother without being forced to sacrifice economic independence.
The Socialist Alliance priorities are sure to strike a chord with women voters who consistently rank issues such as equal pay, job security and access to quality childcare and paid maternity leave as key concerns.
Howard's "baby bonus" is a reactionary fraud aimed at stopping women from throwing off the chains of domestic drudgery and participating in the public arenas of society — paid work, political activity, education. Their right to do so is a key demand for socialists and feminists alike.
The Socialist Alliance has a clear message for all women — join us in the battle for a liberated future. Reject Howard's attempts to drag us back to the degradation and misery that was widespread behind the white picket fences he fetishises.
[Alison Thorne is a Victorian Senate candidate for the Socialist Alliance and a member of the Freedom Socialist Party.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 7, 2001.
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