The Howard government's promise a of "baby bonus" demonstrates that the Coalition is not listening to what women really want in this election campaign.

Clearly what women in Australia need and deserve is access to paid maternity leave as well as a range of family friendly working conditions and quality childcare. This would allow clear choice in child rearing options.

The Howard plan goes no way to addressing these fundamental issues.

Australia lags far behind the rest of the world in its provision of paid maternity leave with many women struggling even to access unpaid maternity leave.

This Coalition policy is clearly targeted at high income earners and does little for women on average or low incomes. On the Coalition's own figures the maximum rebate of $2 500 will only be able to be accessed by women who earn in excess of $52 666 pa. (see table below) It is estimated that this will be less than 3% of the female workforce.

Increasingly women make up the casual workforce and thus earn least. It follows that they will pay the least tax and therefore will only be able to access the lower rebate amounts.

The ACTU has labelled the proposed tax rebate as "regressive" and the Women's Electoral Lobby also has reservations about the appropriateness of the proposed new system. Women in rural areas are also already pointing to the inadequacies of the system.

Instead of media-grabbing announcements such as this, the Howard government should commit to improving access to affordable and high quality childcare so that women and men can make real choices in regards to their child rearing arrangements.

The adoption of the ILO Convention of 14 weeks paid maternity leave as well as the introduction of family friendly industrial relations laws would do far more to improve the conditions of women workers, families and our society in general.

Earnings	Tax Paid	Yearly Refund
$20,000	$2,380	$500*
$25,000	$3,380	$776
$30,000	$5,380	$1,076
$35,000	$6,880	$1,376
$40,000	$8,380	$1,676
$45,000	$9,880	$1,976
$50,000	$11,380	$2,276
$52,666	$12,500	$2,500**

*guaranteed minimum
**maximum

Source: Liberal Party
Authorised by D. Fitzgerald, AEU President, 120 Clarendon St, Southbank Vic. 3006 Australia