Is ex-Premier David Bartlett the father of the future?

And here, David Bartlett becomes a case study in the privileges that underpin men’s decisions to step back from paid work. He is in a position to respond to his child’s needs. He can afford to take a pay-cut and negotiate a new role in his organisation. He has chosen to make changes, rather than having them thrust upon him through unemployment, under-employment, illness or a failure of child-care. Bartlett has presented his decision as a choice but this is not a choice that is available to many.

Bartlett’s decision is a reminder of the possibilities of fathering but not a trigger for real change in the family-work nexus in politics and elsewhere.

In 2001, John Howard described work-family balance as barbeque stopper. Eleven years on, it feels the barbeques are fewer and farther between. The presence or absence of parental leave or flex-time doesn’t hurt efforts to pull fathers into family life, but these are not enough.

We need to challenge the idea that work matters more than families. We must recognise that the difficulties of fathering reflect and shape those of being a mother.

Facilitating mothering and fathering is not a zero-sum game but a way of supporting men and women to find ways to best way to meet the needs of their children and themselves.