Thank you Prime Minister
What a day it has been for Australia. Prime Minister Rudd, in the most graceful way possible, has stepped aside to allow our first woman Prime Minister to take charge.
ALP votes against six months parental leave
On May 27 the Liberal Party attempted, and failed, to amend the government’s paid parental leave scheme to increase it to 6 months leave on full income replacement. The amendment was defeated.
Proposed maternity leave scheme problems
The Women and Work Research Group (WWRG) at Sydney University have identified a few more problems with the government’s proposed paid parental leave legislation in their recent submission to the Senate's Inquiry into the Exposure Draft of the Paid Parental Leave Scheme Bill 2010.
Who's a clever boy, then?
My first reaction to the federal budget is that Tony Abbott must be VERY pleased with himself. In no uncertain terms he told the government, and Australia, that the most important challenge facing us is getting rid of our surplus, and this has been swallowed hook line and sinker by the Rudd government at the expense of everything that Labor holds dear.
Come in spinner
Don't you love spin? In the past few weeks, according to the spin, the Rudd government has protected us from becoming a 'divided community' and cleverly avoided 'disrupting parents' and 'unsettling the child care industry'.
Will the real problem please stand up?
I have always believed that the first step in successful problem solving is to question your assumptions. This means understanding how you arrive at your interpretations of the world, and how that influences your thinking about the particular problem at hand, or how it can be solved.
Just like home, really
Years ago, after living in a country where democracy didn't exist, I returned to Australia full of democratic zeal and fervour, but it didn't take long to realise that even in our wonderful country, democracy can come under threat.
Maternity leave is for employed women
Let me make this clear - despite the attempts of the Rudd government to redefine paid maternity leave, it is not, I repeat NOT, a welfare payment.
Tony Abbott wants paid maternity leave
Who'd believe it - but hallelujah, hallelujah! At last, an Australian political party is listening to what women have been saying they want for a long, long time. Just take a look at some of my blogs from 2008...and 2009...
A vow of silence
Since writing yesterday's post, it also occurs to me that perhaps Julia Gillard has it good. After all, she does get to speak on issues about this government's agenda, while the women in the Liberal party appear to have taken a vow of silence.
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