Women’s work
Remember how Helen Clark said earlier this year that the Government would be trying to encourage more women into the workforce (and, by extension, out of the home)? Women’s (poor) economic performance was holding us back as a nation, the Government said.
Well, it seems that Treasury disagrees. The Sunday Star-Times reports today:
Treasury officials have questioned Prime Minister Helen Clark’s plans to get mums back to work, saying New Zealand households are already among the hardest working in the world.
Getting more people into work would mean less time for child rearing, housework and leisure - unpaid activities that “are nonetheless valuable and contribute to the overall welfare of the country”, Treasury official Grant Johnston said.
The report, displayed on a Treasury website last month and removed soon after, looked at New Zealand women’s work patterns compared to other western countries.
Johnston found the biggest factor in women not being at work was having pre-school children.
Any policy needed to take into account “the desirability of time spent with young children”.
Notwithstanding its aborted moves to encourage more Mums into the workforce, this Government does have a pretty good record when it comes to helping parents spend time with new kids. Paid parental leave has been instrumental in helping new parents be able to afford to spend time with new-born kids, though the Greens would like to see it extended.
On the other hand, it’s sad that the parties of the right, which claim to be about “family values”, reflexively oppose as too expensive moves to help families spend more time together. They opposed paid parental leave and they oppose Sue K’s efforts to make the workforce more flexible and thus more family-friendly. They argue that this opposition comes from the view that having children is a personal choice, and not one that the government should pick up the tab for.
The problem with that is two-fold. First, it at least tacitly endorses the view that quality time with their parents is a luxury that only the children of the rich get. Second, there are plenty of things for which the Government is going to be forced to pick up the tab when children without attentive parents start having learning difficulties or getting in trouble with the law.
