opinion

The Turnbull Government might have some benefits for stay-at-home mums.

There might be something in this new Government for you.

The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has negotiated a $4 billion deal with the Nationals in order to bring them on board with a Turnbull-led Coalition.

Yesterday, just hours before being sworn in at Government House as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, the new PM met with Nationals leader, Warren Truss and signed a deal that could potentially change things for many families.

With a key part of the deal being a $600 million package for stay-at-home mums.

Under the proposal, Cabinet will consider extending Family Tax Benefit B payments, giving 140,000 families with a stay-at-home parent an extra $1,000 a year in benefits.

Queensland Nationals Senator, Matt Canavan, who secured the deal for families said, “I was not happy that the families package ignored stay-at-home parent families.”

He says he was disappointed that this year’s budget focused on families with children in childcare and that there was a big gap between families with stay-at-home parents and their working counterparts.

A $600 million package for stay-at-home mums.

The Senator said, "Our tax system subsidises both parents to go to work. That's exactly the wrong way around. We should be encouraging more people to stay at home with their children, particularly when they are young."

The package will see families earning less than $100,000 a year be given an extra $1,000 a year to care for children while their kids are under the age of one.

He said it is a start that they can build on and a change in the government’s approach to families.

ADVERTISEMENT

In an interview with the ABC this morning he said that, "Parents that look after their own children deserve support."

"Some of the best care that can be given to children is from the parent and that is particularly with young children and this is focused on newborn children," he continued.

The father-of-four said that, "Young children receive enormous benefit from having full time care if it is possible and I don’t want to make it harder for parents to make that decision in relative terms – the decision to go back to work."

Senator Matt Canavan and his family. Image supplied.

"Most parents can make that choice for themselves but if we don’t give them that choice, if we bias the tax system against that choice, fewer kids will be able to have their mum or dad look after them and fewer parents will be able to experience the wonderful joy of seeing their young children grow up more rather than sitting at a desk and missing out," the Senator said.

He said in a statement today that the said that the tax system was tilted against parents who choose to stay at home and look after their children. "It is inefficient, unfair and ignores the development benefits of stay-at-home parenting for children," he said.

Senator Canavan had previously expressed his concerns over this year's budget, which saw stay-at-home mothers in households with incomes greater than $65,000 a year, lose most of their current subsidy unless they met a minimum weekly work or study requirement. More than 80,000 new mothers also lost out under the 'double dipping' parental leave payments changes.

ADVERTISEMENT

He told the ABC earlier in the year that choosing to have one stay-at-home parent could be the costliest option because, "You give up your entire second income to do it."

"I’m deeply concerned about the growing divide between the costs of stay-at-home parenting and the benefits and advantages that flow to parents that decide to put their kids in childcare," he said.

Malcolm Turnbull has previously expressed his determination to get more mothers back in the workforce saying earlier this year:

"It is quite clear that what we need to achieve is greater workforce participation, particularly from women. Particularly from women with children. The best way to do that, as everybody will tell you, including the Productivity Commission, is to make childcare more accessible and affordable. That’s what we’re spending billions of dollars to do."

Senator Canavan said he feels the decision should be with the individual families.

"I think we should have a system where mums and dads make the decision about how they want to look after their children but we increasingly have a system that encourages or forces them to enter the workforce," he said.

Senator Canavan believes, "There are enormous benefits to our community from people working in the home or out of the home but not getting paid for it."

If his new package is secured it looks like some of these concerns will finally be redressed.

What do you think about the proposal? Does it go far enough?