Rudd’s Razor Gang
Time to rethink baby bonus | The Australian
It’s ironic that the Labor party has usually been portrayed as the pro-welfare, more socialist party in Australia, yet now we are seeing a raft of stories about various welfare payments that are being threatened by Rudd’s budget razor gang, including payments for carers of disabled people. The next payment on the list is the “baby bonus” of about $4000 paid on the birth of a new child. Although Rudd denies any plans to do so, there are calls for the payment to be scrapped or at least means tested. Now I don’t think this payment is necessarily a great “fertility incentive” - let’s face it, babies are very expensive little things and a few thousand dollars doesn’t cover all the costs of having one - anyone who decided to have a child purely because of the lure of this money would be crazy. But as a way of helping out families with these expenses and making things a little easier, it’s a good thing. In our case it’s enabled me to reduce my hours at work for a few weeks surrounding the birth of Mia so I can be home more and help out with the kids. If the payment was means tested then I certainly wouldn’t be eligible and would have to work a lot more (I don’t get any sort of “paternity leave” or in fact paid leave of any kind). All this assumes that we actually get the payment - Centrelink already (typically) have made some sort of mistake and we need to go in to the office and sort it out. But anyway, I hope Rudd sticks to his promise and leaves the bonus alone.
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