Are politicians, (from both sides) born dumb, or do they change when they enter the political arena.

Here we have yet another enquiry, into why women are being unfairly treated by parental leave laws.

Well, HELLO, what did they expect!

It's not rocket science, but what these pollies seem to forget is that a BUSINESS is what dictates the hours of work, not THE BOSS.

These fools just care about how workers are treated and give little to no real regards to the needs of the most important link in the whole chain, THE BUSINESS.

Can not help my self, I begin to itch and get angry when both hands go in the air and each wiggles two fingers while the mouth says *they say*
Our some one utters the words *build a bridge* a bridge and get over it*
or well *hollo* does it too.
Notice how these words and actions have sneaked in to our speakers?
And that rather than address the issue at hand, show not under standing, they hide the fact no answer is coming.

Rechtub will not know, based only on his statement that Abbott has a scheme, a bigger scheme, to pay women to have children.
If old mate that annoys you? build a bridge and get over it.

Belly, I am no fat of parental leave, no matter who brings it in.

But the fact remains, that once agin I have warned this would happen, unfairness to women, once PL was introduced.

You see, I was an employer and know how many of them think, and havimg a gun held to their head is not how you treat business owners.

As for parental leave assistance, I do think parents should perhaps be allowed to use a portion of their super while on PL, as this would be fair, as after all, they are the ones choosing to have children.

They (the intending parents) could even contribute a little more while planning their family.

Either way, the burden must be taken away from business, as business in this country is about to get the biggest shake up we have seen for decades, as mining declines and China slows or goes elsewhere.

Watch this space I say.

The "right wing" vision for Australia appears to me to be an East meets West fusion like South Korea or Singapore, heavy state management of the economy but with a socially conservative,Christian/Islamic popular culture. In Korea they have fairly generous parenting allowances which are means tested and a state held parental leave insurance plan in which parents can claim up to 40% of their wage for twelve months.

I am not sure we all understand this leave, no matter how we fund it, is paid by us.
I am sure the recent cutting of baby bonus was a good move.
Some folk had unloved and neglected children, for the cash.
I am sure we can give something to parents to help.
But against *any welfare* to those not in need of it.
We will be confronted by many such inquiry's and even cuts all too soon.

It all goes back to the 1970s when the government forced financial
authorities to lend on both incomes.

Women thought they had made a really good gain in equality.
The poor dears did not understand that if you double the amount of
money in any market the prices rise to meet the amount of money available.
Now, surprise surprise they need two incomes to pay the mortgage.
Therefore if they have a baby they have to get the money to pay the
mortgage.
Hence they have babies too late in life with all the troubles that brings.

Where do they get that extra money, why from where they get their money when working of course.

I know the ladies on here will be offended but tough titties thems
the facts of life.

Having children is a "SIW" (self inflicted wound) and should be treated like what it is. No one is forced to have children. You make the decision yourself and you used to make it based on your own ability to provide for the children.
Today the decision is based on how much support you get from the taxpayer who has no say in your decision. Fair go mater.
If you have to have two incomes it is because you are living above your means. Come back to reality. My taxes were meant to support me in my old age now they support you in you child productive years. Fair go mate.

chrisgaff1000, how true is that.

When I was a kid, my parents only finacial support was then known as child endownment.

These days, if one becomes well educated, or well skilled and, pulls a great job as a result, they get told, sorry, you earn too much.

Meanwhile, people have worked out that if they work the minimum during their family raising years, they get all the finacial aid under the sun.

My parents couldn't afford more kids than the three of us, but now, they don't even need a job to have as many kids as they choose.

Not content with being supported by the worker, they now want to be paid to stay home and have kids as well.

And the powers to be sit there and wonder why their grand scheme is hurting women in the workplace.

What a joke!

Chrisgaff said;
If you have to have two incomes it is because you are living above your means.

Not necessarily true.
The price of housing presumes that two incomes are being used to
finance the purchase of a house.
This is the result of the government insisting that two incomes are
considered by the lending source.

Another Canberra disaster.

People forget the facts of life, now & back in the bad old days.

When I was a kid the cost of housing to rent was 30% of the award wage for an average worker. Buying an average house was no more than 4 times that annual wage. The cost of transport was minimal, Ryde was the sticks, but still only a 17 minute tram ride from Sydney city, mum made all the furnishings, most of the clothes, & would you believe actually shelled fresh peas.

In fact women saved as much as they keep of their earnings today, by making much themselves.

We had none of todays essentials like TV, mobile phones, I pads freezers, & I can still remember our first fridge, & the fact mum could now make ice cream. Yes make it, who could afford to buy it.

A single light, hanging from the ceiling did the job of 6 down lights today, & the switch beside it was operated by pulling a cord. Copper was expensive & in short supply, few could afford extra wire to a switch on the wall, by the door.

Yes mum could stay home & be a house wife, but she was busy being just that, & making most of what we needed, no Days of Our lives to watch, & who would have had time if there was.

God I & my generation were lucky to be born in the bad old days.

Hasbeen

And she never complained and in most cases loved it. I know married women around here in Cairns that can neither cook or do housework because they grew up in a single parent disjoint home where socialistic voice proscribed "rights" and privilege and responsibility were replaced with need and dependance.
Bazz

I said 'Living above your means" that was wrong of course what I should have said was "living with expectations way above you station in life".
The privileges of life, apart from birthright, come from hard work and realistic expectations and the are earned. They do not come from taking advantage of every taxpayer handout and socialistic state funded "helping handout" that vote seeking governments put in place as the "carrots" to power.
How immoral is it to have a partner who is a "tradie" with his boat, and trail bike and his quad bike and taxpayer funded v8 4x$ that pulls the trailer on the weekend recreational activities and the wife running her own small business with her own "business vehicle", cash out of the till for expenses and at the same time accepting child care subsidies just because they are there.
Not everyone true...but most. Have a look around you.
Fair go mate.

The other thing about the bad old days, it developed an "us against the nasty world" approach to things. Life was a bit of a struggle, & achieving something together was what made the glue that stuck couples together.

I remember my parents buying & recovering an old lounge. It was a hell of a job sewing all that heavy material on an old treadle Singer machine, but mum managed it.

They had no real idea of how they should do things, but muddled through. Hand sewing the last seam on cushions made of springs & horse hair, with no zip, took weeks of nights, but their satisfaction of having that lounge was a triumph shared, & great glue.

Some how walking around a furniture store, & deciding which lounge to buy, on no deposit & no repayments for 2 years just doesn't produce that glue.

Hasbeen, the reason for ceiling switches with the cord, as was the case
in my parents home, was because the houses were originally equipped
with gas lighting. When electricity was connected, because the houses
were brick and internal walls were single brick it was too difficult
to get the switch wire down into the room at the required height.

So ceiling switches solved all those problems.
Ahh yes my mother used to make my shirts also, no poor Bangladeshis
to clothe us all in those days.
My mother before she married was a seamstress so it was second nature
to her to make shirts and the like.

Imagine, she worked at Grace Bros, now merged into Myers, with a few
hundred other girls.
Don't worry, that industry will return here in some years time.
The Y generation is in for a numbing shock.

The rest of us, if we are still here, will sit back laughing !

Yes, I have often said that many people can afford a house, they just can't afford THE HOUSE and there in lies the problem.