Socialist Party Australia - Howard's attack on women

By Samantha Ashby
Socialist Party, Newcastle
In the run up to the federal elections Liberal and Labor have ‘family values’ at the center of their campaigns. So are they going to change the lives of working class families? No - they are planning some superficial changes that won’t impact on the real issues.
The biggest issues that improve family life are full employment and decent wages, good education for all children and a supportive benefit system that supports older people and those with illnesses, and families leaving their countries as refugees. The following article reveals the real state of family values in Australia and puts forward the Socialist Party’s agenda for change.

So what are the social conditions that impact on families and what are the two main parties in Australia willing to do to improve them? Well funded schools, opportunities for employment, leisure resources, community centers, good health systems, affordable housing both to rent and to buy, good well resourced housing commission estates, able to get access to social security benefits when needed that allow people to live without daily struggles. For some women relief from abusive partners through zero tolerance of domestic violence and easy access to safe houses is vital.

So where are these issues on the agenda of John Howard and Mark Latham? Socialism has aims and directions for family values very different to the main parties because we want to change the system not tinker at the edges.

Unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, is the most significant cause of poverty and disadvantage in the Australian community. In January 2004, the official unemployment rate in Australia was 5.6% which is 574,100 people. However, recent studies by ACOSS show that the actual level of unemployment, is closer to 16% for men and 36% for women. This includes hidden unemployment and underemployment. (Underemployment includes workers employed in jobs not commensurate with their skills and persons employed part-time but wishing to work more hours). Families with no employed member have poverty rates almost seven times higher than the poverty rate among families with one employed person. This is no surprise but means that the socialist parties demand for full employment initiatives is necessary to make significant improvements in family life.

Women and work
Women are effected most by all types of unemployment because they form the majority of sole parent families. One out of every five Australians living in sole parent families is in poverty, have trouble finding affordable flexible child care, and lose career opportunities through taking time out for family. It is normal for the women’s job to become part time after having children or for her to stop working and when work is found the waiting lists for pre-schools and out of schools clubs mean a wait of months or years before women can start full time work. Professional women find that going part time ruins their careers in male dominated professions such as law, accountancy and medicine. These women chose fulltime work to avoid their careers stagnating even if they prefer to spend time with their child.

The Australian researched that low-income families with 3 or more children cannot afford for the woman to return to work because of the costs of childcare vs. loss of benefits. It found that the average cost of childcare is $35-$58 for long day care centers.

The Socialist Party recognizes that the availability of quality affordable childcare is a vital part in improving family life. Childcare should be free to all children of all ages with qualified staff and well planned areas that can be contributed to by the community. Where women are happy knowing that children are receiving well-planned activities.

Women often take the burden of family life – socialism, places issues effecting women seriously. Lenin and Trotsky recognized that women’s issues were a priority in the socialist transition of society. In fact in the midst of imperialist counter revolutionary armies attacking Russia, Trotsky and Lenin attended mass meetings of women workers and made time to write about the need for not only reform of laws to make women equal and to plan the social supports needed to remove the oppression of household tasks work and childcare.

A socialist economy would help women reduce the amount of housework they do – by practical solutions, public laundries, canteens and restaurants open to all and community crèches including at TAFE and university. These initiatives would allow women time for leisure, education and political activity. It suits capitalism to have “traditional two parent” families as a social conditioning tool for future generations. Social conditioning occurs when the children of low income families see only one parent working (normally the father) and the other parent providing free childcare and household work to keep the family unit ticking over.

Under capitalism the work carried out in the home is not paid – and neither is childcare. This is despite the value that this provides to the capitalist system.

The Liberals have set up a tax system, which makes it impossible for low income families to escape the poverty trap. Mothers of battling families who work for up to 20 hours per week on the minimum wage of $11.80, to boost the household income routinely lose more than 80c in every dollar they earn. This marginal tax rate means that struggling families lose more per additional dollar earned than the richest people in Australia.

Low income earners end up paying marginal tax rates of more than 50% when returning to part time work. This is more than the top rate of tax at 47%! They also lose means tested welfare payments while also facing extra childcare bills. The Liberal Party’s policies have increased the number of children in Australia who are living in poverty. Poverty extends to children whose parents are unemployed but also when they are on low incomes. This makes the need for a living minimum wage of $20 dollars per hour rather than that set by MPs with their comfortable salaries in Canberra.

Liberal values bankrupt
Of course the Liberals want two parent families and a reduction in teenage mothers. The same people are against sex education in schools and provide reduced services for family planning. Sole parent families are created through divorce as well as death of a spouse. Even when father’s do pay support living expenses are still higher for separated families than for those living together. Liberals would rather see parents stuck in failed relationships because it is cheaper for capitalism for one parent – necessarily always the woman to stay at home and provide free child care. Not that they offer much for single parents either.

One woman’s statement to the Senate Committee on Poverty stated that: “Until recently I had no clear picture of just what that phrase (child poverty) meant. What it means is that my children and many more besides are unlikely to reach their full potential due to the increasing inequality in Australian society.

“This is not due to lack of parental effort but the reality is that income support payments are below the poverty line to begin with. Intelligence and diligence will not change the reality that: My children have fewer sporting and cultural opportunities. My children are discriminated against due to our family status.” “My children are disadvantaged in life simply because I cannot afford to provide the same opportunities that other families can. The level of education I can afford for my children will differ from those who do not live in a Sole Parent family.

“Due to the reality that income payments are already below the poverty line our government in effect keeps my children in poverty. The Child Support Agency is not always effective and contributes to higher levels of poverty due to their inability to collect financial support from the children’s father.” The National Council of Single Mothers and their Children stated that the risk of poverty for single parent households had increased over the past few years under the Liberal Party’s family values policies due to changes in the family payment system. When the non-custodial parent gets to see the children every second weekend and half the holidays there is a 22 per cent drop in family support income paid to the main carer.

The result is children withdrawing from sporting and extra curricula activities; and, families were living without utilities, selling the family car and moving to less expensive accommodation because of the reduction in family support payments when children see their father. This system needs changing whereas the Liberals just want to squeeze more money out of low-income families to save dollars. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) showed that people who are less well educated, unemployed or living in households with low income report poorer health and are more likely to have serious chronic illnesses than people from higher socio-economic backgrounds. When people are ill they need to be supported by society not rejected by governments and forced to live on minimal benefits. Anyone can get sick at any time. Just think what would happen to you if you lost your job and had not any chance of getting a new one!

Two-tier health system
Any two-tier system of health care means that the poorest families find themselves with lesser standards of care, less access to medical and treatments they need. A socialist society recognises that health care should be for everyone not just those with health insurance. Capitalist policies are short term and waste people’s talents because illness reduces an individual’s capacity to take up opportunities such as employment or training. The ill-health of children or family members within families may also result in a cycle of poverty that is difficult to overcome because caring is not recognised as a job by the government and reduces paid work options as their work is caring for the child. So the more caring the family is the more they are penalised under capitalism.

In Australia under John Howard his family values don’t exist for refugees. 9000 Temporary permit visa holders from Iraq and Afghanistan are to be sent back as their visas expire. This is despite the Australian government recommending that citizens should not travel to either country with Iraq being described on the government website as “extremely hazardous, as underscored by continuing terrorist bombings and other attacks against civilians.”

Labor’s alternative
The Liberals are responsible for working class families’ problems getting worse so what is Labor’s solution? The Labor Party’s idea on how to improve life for the Australian family is based on compulsory parenting class for people who have children with behavioral problems! Mark Latham wants parents to take responsibility of their ‘wayward’ children by giving the courts the power to issue ‘parental responsibility orders’. Parents will have to attend classes on how to handle rebellious children. “When problems spill into the public areas, problems of graffiti and vandalism and the like, street kids, the parents don’t know where they are at night, children not turning up to schools, then I think the government has responsibility to do something constructive. You need to put pressure on the parents to take more responsibility but also provide some of support that can help sort their lives out and be more effective parents in the future.”

Howard states “parenting is mostly a family responsibility.” Placing the blame on individuals is an easier target than curing the social conditions, which create the problems. Many of the behavioral problems highlighted by Latham have complex social origins. For example, truanting from school is caused partly by children feeling that the education system is not working for them or that their situation is hopeless. They know that they can pick up casual employment in unskilled jobs without qualifications.

Youth Suicide
Children in poorer areas also see mass unemployment in their local areas with no chance of a job in sight. In fact unemployment is one of the linked factors in Australia’s youth suicide which is responsible for more deaths of young people than car accidents and is now the eighth leading cause of death for young people, having increased by 35 per cent over the past 10 years. Risk factors include mental health issues, living in rural areas, and alcohol and drug abuse. Other factors that have also been associated with a higher risk of suicide are unemployment, sexual and/or physical abuse, homelessness and family issues. The level of youth suicide hasn’t changed in the four years that the Federal government has funded various projects because without a change in society that values all people and doesn’t make the unemployed and youth feel worthless this money is really only dealing with superficial changes. Socialism values all people and encourages youth to get active in transforming society.

A key goal in any socialist program for the family is to improve education. What is the Liberal’s attitude to improving education? The prime minister’s main cause of concern is not whether the curriculum is meeting the needs of all children, or increasing the pay of teachers to ensure experienced teachers are kept in the system, his solution is that their should be more men in teaching to provide role models. A male teacher quoted in the SMH stated that he was leaving the profession after 10 years because his salary now has peaked to the level it will remain at until he is 65 unless he becomes a principal. His male teaching friends were all finding the same problem and all with families were planning to leave.

Bias towards elite
Howard states that “private education provides parents with a fundamental right of choice and that choice is increasingly affordable for middle and lower income people, not just the preserve of better off people and I regard that as one of the great things.” But the choice of private schooling is only available to the rich and middle-income earners. People on low incomes and the unemployed have no choice but to use their local schools. At the moment, 70% of children attend public primary schools and 60% attend public high schools. The party who committed millions to the occupation of Iraq is only willing to improve education for public schools in minimal ways trying to link paltry increases in funding to performance targets, increasing the pressure on already stretched teachers.

The Liberals think that the move toward private schooling means that people are happy to pay their salaries towards education needs. However, what it means is that parents want a better public system. In areas where the public schools are of a recognized quality private schools find it hard to recruit. Working class parents all want their children to do as best as they can in their education often wanting them to better their own conditions but without spare finances this is impossible. Every child in Australia deserves the right to highest standards of education and the socialist party is not worried about offending the parents of those attending private schools we are more interested in funding pay rises for teachers and improving resources at all levels, changing the curriculum to reflect the needs and interests of all children and providing real employment opportunities to all.

Howard is happy enough to parade himself at war memorial services for veterans and talk about family values but what about the older people of Australia. Even Latham recognises that workers should be allowed the respect of retirement. Howard and the Liberals disguise their short sighted and miserly idea that people should have the “right” to carry on working past age 65 as a positive choice. The cheeky bastards who haven’t done a hard days work in their lives – they should try brick laying all day at the age of 65 and see if they consider it to be positive. This policy shows all the contempt that the capitalist parties have for those not able to make profit – stuff all the years they paid taxes and made fortunes for the Liberal party’s cronies in business! It’s also an excuse to wipe away payments to older people at a time when reports by the Senate are showing that they need more money not less.

The Senate report on poverty stated that Poverty for aged Australians may mean living on the streets or in extremely poor accommodation, not being able to purchase necessary food and medication, or having to leave a family home because of the inability to afford rates and maintenance expenses. They are often is a worse state of poverty if they are fulfilling their family values when caring for a disabled partner or for children, an increasingly common occurrence.

The Liberal focus on family values is a desperate attempt to try and put the blame for growing family poverty and divorce rates and failing education and health systems on to individual families and parents. Latham’s policies are merely a pale imitation of the Liberal’s views. The truth is that the Labor party is happy with the status quo just making a few adjustments but nothing too radical that might involve higher taxes on the rich or on businesses. To really value families we have to challenge the very existence of capitalism itself.