Paid maternity leave is a work-related entitlement

The real debate that we should be having is not why women should be entitled to paid maternity leave but rather what should the national scheme look like and who should top up the payment to pre-leave earnings and how?

Peter Costello himself recently highlighted the confusion in the debate when he argued that paid maternity leave would not fix Australia's ailing fertility rate and that such arguments were wrong because there was no "magic bullet". This led to confusion in the media over what the Government line really was, but maybe all that Peter Costello was doing was trying to do was deal directly with paid maternity leave and hadn't been briefed properly on his Government's "family policy" diversion strategy.

It goes without saying that all interested parties - employers, the Government, unions and community organisations and of course women themselves must examine other support measures for all mothers and consider family policy initiatives which will assist workers to balance their work and family lives.

There are also other serious and pressing issues relating to women's participation in the workforce that need to be addressed such as childcare, precarious employment, promotion and career opportunities and pay inequity to name only a few. But this doesn't mean that a direct response on a national scheme on paid maternity leave can't be considered in isolation to any of these issues or policies.