Paid maternity leave is not a fertility policy

It is worth recording that family assistance benefits have been very significantly increased under the term of the Howard Government, through the introduction of Family Tax Payment A, Family Tax Payment B, Childcare Benefit and the Baby Bonus.

In 2002-03 a total of $19.3 billion will be paid to families (through Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefits, Maternity Allowances, Parenting Payment and the Baby Bonus). These payments have not been directed at increasing fertility rates, but at helping with the cost of raising children. The available evidence shows that they have significantly improved the financial position of families. Notwithstanding this assistance, fertility rates remain low by historical standards.

In a society like ours where there are high levels of education for women and strong career opportunities, the fertility rate is likely to remain low.

Therefore it is not realistic to think that the ageing of the population can be significantly addressed by a reversal of the fertility rate. It is not realistic to believe that it can be addressed by the introduction of universal maternity leave.

The ageing of the population is something that Australia must face up to in the same way as every other western society. The ageing of the population is not occurring in African countries or in the Muslim world. But it is occurring in Western societies and is occurring in Australia.

We cannot avoid this issue. We must start to address it. And the longer we leave it, the harder it gets.

To the extent that a universal maternity allowance increases female participation in the workforce or assists employers to retain a skilled workforce, there may be a case for paid maternity leave. Increased female participation in the workforce and the contribution to GDP they make, provides a stronger economic and tax base to carry the costs of an ageing population. What is unlikely, is that it would produce a higher fertility rate. And it would not, in any meaningful sense, reverse the "ageing of the population". This is a problem we will have to address in much more direct terms, like restraining costs in those areas where Commonwealth expenditure is growing out of proportion to economic growth.