There has been some publicity in the media lately about the parlous state of superannuation for women in the 40 to 50 age group. WAA has lobbied consistently over many years for initiatives which would address the problem of low retirement incomes for women. Late last year we had a significant win with the passage through Federal Parliament of legislation allowing splitting of compulsory superannuation contributions between spouses. This allows women to keep their superannuation accounts alive while they are out of the paid workforce. WAA has written to The Hon. Julie Bishop, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Women’s Issues, asking that the availability of this facility be widely published during the Government’s publicity campaigns on superannuation.

We also raised with the Minister our desire to see the Superannuation Co-Contribution scheme extended to women not in paid work. Under this scheme the Government will match contributions made to superannuation by people earning below $58,000 pa. WAA believes that women who care full-time for their families ought to be able to access this scheme. We believe it would dovetail well with the superannuation splitting arrangements, if contributions made into a woman’s account could be met by contributions from the

Government. We will continue to lobby on this issue.

In October the Australian Institute of Family Studies released an interesting analysis of figures on the paid work characteristics of mothers with infants. The statistics confirmed our view that women with very young children (the study looked at children aged from 3-19 months) work relatively few hours. It is also interesting to note that whilst employment rates for mothers with a child under one increased from 20% in 1981 to 35% in 2001, the vast majority of women with very young children are not in any form of paid work at all. For those who were in paid employment the average hours worked was 20.4 per week, with 43% only working 1-15 hours per week. Professional women tended to work longer hours.

It was also interesting to note that in November the Government announced that the Maternity Payment would now be paid out over 13 instalments to mothers under 18, rather than as a lump sum as has been the case in the past. It is to be hoped that this move will assist young mothers in budgeting for the cost of additional expenses associated with the birth of their new child.

CLONING HUMAN EMBRYOS

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however, that many problems have been noted with animals created this way and concerns remain that cells harvested from cloned embryos could become cancerous. The advantage of research using adult stem-cells is that it does not involve the destruction of a human embryo.

Another concern raised about ‘therapeutic cloning’ is the issue of where the researchers will get all the eggs they need for their research. The process requires large numbers of eggs, more than can be obtained from those left over from in-vitro fertilisation

programs. The fear is that women will be manipulated or bribed into allowing their eggs to be harvested. In a recent edition of the SBS program Insight, an embryonic stem cell researcher from Newcastle in the United Kingdom, said they were already looking at ways of encouraging less well-off women into the in-vitro fertilisation program as a way of increasing the availability of eggs.

The Bill passed in the Senate is due to be introduced into the House of Representatives on November 27. The passage of this Bill would mark a significant and controversial crossing of an ethical boundary in the status of the human embryo in stem-cell research.

The Federal Government has announced a National Filter Scheme to ensure Australian families can better protect their children from internet pornography.

Under the plan every parent will have access to a free filter for their home computer. The Government will encourage child-safe terminals in libraries and the internet safety agency will get more resources to help families to avoid pornographic content appearing on their computer screens.  Those interested in accessing filter software should contact NetAlert, Australia's internet safety advisory board, on 1800 880 176.

PORN FILTERS ON THE INTERNET

MOTHERS AND PAID WORK

The Institute of Family Studies has just released a paper entitled “Paid Work Characteristics of  Mothers with Infants”. The paper draws on data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, Growing Up in Australia.

 

The data showed that, while 38% of mother with infants (children under 19 months), were in employment, the highest proportion of them worked less than 15 hours per week (43%), while only 20.5% worked full time.

 

For some mothers, the flexibility of casual employment was a help in balancing work and family responsibilities, while for others, permanent employment  provided more predictable work and better conditions. For some, self employment provided the best degree of flexibility.

 

Interestingly,  over 83% of the mothers were able to vary their start and finish times. Either with or without their employer’s approval.

 

The most common occupational type of the mothers was professional. Nearly 30% of employed mothers fell into this category.

 

This makes sense, as these women are more likely to be given a degree of flexibility which would make the combination of paid work and mothering a young infant  a little easier.