Sharman Stone MP

 

STONE:                Good morning Nick.

 

PRESENTER:      You say that the Government has a cheap-skate scheme so therefore you are planning something much grander. What are your plans?

 

STONE:                  Well, not necessarily a grander plan Nick. What we are planning is that there has to be at least 6 month of paid parental leave.

 

There is evidence right across of the emotional, social and health benefits for the baby and for the parent, the mother in particular breast feeding, that there must be at least 6 months.

 

In fact the productivity commission when it brought its report down over 12 months ago now Nick, said 6-9 months is what there should be. So, what I am doing as the Shadow Minister for the Status of Women and Early Childhood Education and Childcare is putting together our proposal because what Labor has proposed as I said in the media, is cheap-skate and it really still locks in the inequities that we have right now.

 

So in other words, if you are in the public service as a highly skilled, highly paid women right now, then you actually get reasonable paid maternity leave. If you are lower skilled less paid women, say earning only $500 or so a week, you are down to about 20 percent parental leave, and that is not fair to keep those inequities going.

 

 

 

PRESENTER:      Look I like the idea of a paid maternity leave, but let me clarify one thing. The Government 18 week scheme is going to be government funded. What is your scheme going to be, is it going to be business funded or government funded?

 

STONE:                 We are very conscious Nick of the fact that if you put the burden of paid parental leave costs on to a small business person, what you have is those bosses saying; we are not going to employ women who are of child bearing age. So you have got to be careful about this and what I am developing up is a system, scheme or program, if you like, that is like Labor’s, not a burden on the business sector.

 

PRESENTER:        Purely government?

 

STONE:                  Well tax payer, which is government. Say for example at the moment there is the baby bonus. You wouldn’t get both. You wouldn’t get the baby bonus of $5,100 if you are on paid parental leave.

 

So you can actually jiggle it around, so you can work this out to be fairly cost neutral with what we’ve currently got, but delivering real benefits to parents who often really want to spend the first six months at least with their babies.

 

PRESENTER:       In his book, a Battleline, which was published last year, Mr Abbott, floated the idea of a 7.5 percent pay role levee on business to pay for this. So he actually floated the idea of business paying for this. Are you saying that idea, he received a fair wack for that too I might add, are you saying that idea has gone to god?

 

STONE:                What I am doing, right now is looking at how you would cost a scheme that would not scare the horses in a sense; that we wouldn’t have child bearing aged woman discriminated against in the workplace.

 

PRESENTER:       So that would rule, Mr Abbott’s original idea in his book?

 

STONE:                I cant rule anything in or out, but let me tell you, we are not going to have a situation where small businesses in particular, who as you know are the biggest employers in Australia, think twice about taking on a young 25 year old women who obviously is approaching, or is already in her child bearing mode.

 

So we certainly are not going to disadvantage women like that. On the other hand as I said to you a second ago, there are other ways, with the baby bonus, with other, for example childcare subsidies you wouldn’t need if you’re at home with your bub that are currently very well costed and supplied as subsidies through the tax payer system. Jiggle all those around and you can come out with a pretty cost neutral scheme.

 

PRESENTER:    Under the new fair work provisions, you are allowed to at the moment take a year off then request another year.

 

 

 

STONE:                Yes,

 

PRESENTER:    Will that remain?

 

STONE:            Well Nick I think that’s an absolute farce. The idea that all you have access to in Australia is a whole year of unpaid leave, and then if you ask your boss very nicely, you might give you another year of unpaid leave.

 

 That doesn’t in fact help the average woman, or the average parent to stay at home in that vital first 6 months if she wishes, or he wishes, if it is the Dad who is the primary carer. So I think what Labor has said is an insult to mothers.

 

I am a mother and a grandmother. I have got two daughters and a daughter- in-law battling as you do with young kids and childcare and jobs. They are all careerists themselves. What Labor is proposing is out of touch with what is really going on with men and women as parents in the Australian workforce now.

 

PRESENTER:      Ok and for small business people who own their own business. If it’s a government funded paid maternity, or paid paternity plan………………?

 

STONE:            Parental leave, yes?

 

PRESENTER:    Parental leave, they would be entitled to it as well?

 

STONE:                Absolutely. I don’t think because you’re a woman who is a hairdresser employing a   couple of people that you should not have access to the paid parental leave in the way that an employee does. So again it’s a matter of how we structure the Coalition Program. But you can do it. And of course it would be means tested as the Labor party’s program is.

 

But at a level that make a vast majority of men and women eligible, and certainly it’s not a case of discriminating against say farming women who are partners in their enterprise and so on.

 

PRESENTER:    We do have to move on Dr Stone, but this surprises me because it appears to be a role reversal. Here you have the Labor party which has been an advocate of this policy for a long time, coming up now with an 18 week plan paid. The Coalition which has been saying it is a load of cobblers for a long time, has now come out and you have promised effectively some form of paid maternity leave for about 6 months or more, paid also by the Government. So you have effectively out- parental leaved them after all these years and there seems to be a role reversal.

 

STONE:            Well Nick there is always a lot of spin about who Labor best represents.

We would always contend as Coalition people, as Liberals and Nationals that we are the best to understand about the needs of parents, small business, employers, and the workforce and so on.

 

So no, this is a continuation of what we did. You might remember I’ve been concerned about in-home care - some people call it Nannies - about not being elitist. It’s in fact the most affordable thing you can do if you have got two kids. And so we are, if you like, the practical realists in this business.

 

PRESENTER:    Ok thankyou very much, Dr Sharman Stone, but of course Mr Abbott when he was in Government wasn’t the practical realist when it comes to parental leave and maternal leave.