Work and Family Policy Round Table

The Australian Work + Family Policy Roundtable is a research network of36 academics from 20 universities and research institutions with expertise on work, care and family policy. The goal of the Roundtable is to propose, comment upon, collect and disseminate research to inform evidence-based public policy in Australia.

Recent Publications

March 2024: Submission to the Work and Care for the Modern Awards Review 2023-24 (AM2023/21)

This submission includes a set of proposals designed to inform the Modern Awards Review in response to the Fair Work Commission’s Discussion Paper on Work and Care.

February 2024: At a Turning Point: Work, care and family policies in Australia

Image of orange book cover with green and purple graphic shape

Edited by Marian Baird, Elizabeth Hill and Sydney Colussi. Sydney University Press

At a Turning Point: Work, care and family policies in Australia provides a comprehensive account of key policy areas that shape the experience of work and care across the life course. These include reproductive wellbeing, paid parental leave, early childhood education and care, flexible work, elder and disability care, and equitable systems of tax and transfer payments. Authors are members of the W+FPR.

 

February 2024: Response to the Productivity Commission draft report: A path to universal early childhood education and care, Inquiry into the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector.

In this response to the Draft Report we argue the Commission has failed to adequately address four issues. These include:

  1. Lack of a detailed plan for how Australia could build a universal system of accessible, affordable and high-quality ECEC over the next 10-20 years, including a plan to build workforce sustainability.
  2. Failure to recognise gender equality as a core principle underpinning ECEC reform that meets the Australian Government’s wider policy goals; access to high quality ECEC is a gender equality measure with positive benefits for the wellbeing and economic security of Australian women and men, children and households as well as national productivity and prosperity.
  3. Failure to take a proactive position on the poor working conditions and low pay, underpinned by gender undervaluation, that characterise employment in the ECEC sector and contribute directly to the sector’s current workforce challenges.
  4. Inadequate attention to the negative impact of leaving critical decisions, such as service distribution within the ECEC system, to market forces and to the impact of commercialisation and the unbalanced growth of for-profit provision on service quality, accessibility, and cost.

May 2023: Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the early childhood education and care (ECEC sector).

In this submission we draw on 18 years of W+FPR research and deliberations on ECEC and related policies to provide evidence to the Inquiry on:

  • The economic and social benefits of a universal system of high-quality ECEC;
  • Investment in a well-trained ECEC workforce, that is paid professional wages as a driver of workforce sustainability and service quality;
  • Maximising the public value of government investment in high-quality ECEC

In response to the evidence in these three domains, the W+FPR makes eight specific recommendations.

March 2023:  Productivity Commission Inquiry into Carer Leave

The Women, Work & Policy Group at the University of Sydney Business School and the W+FPR made a joint submission in response to the Productivity Commission’s 2023 Position paper.

November 2022: Senate Inquiry into Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022

The Roundtable did not make a separate formal submission to this Inquiry. However several Roundtable members appeared before the Inquiry to give evidence. These members included: Rae Cooper, Meg Smith, Fiona Macdonald and Sara Charlesworth.

It is pleasing to see that several regulatory and policy changes that the Roundtable has long been advocating were included in the legislative amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 including:

  • Enshrining gender equality and job security as objects of the Act
  • Reforming the equal remuneration and work value provisions to focus on the gender undervaluation of work; removing any requirement for a male comparator; and inserting a statutory equal remuneration principle
  • The provision of paid family and domestic violence leave of 10 days
  • Empowering the Fair Work Commission to resolve disputes:
    • where an employee’s request for flexible work arrangements is refused by their employer
    • where an employee’s request for extension of their unpaid parental leave is refused by their employer

November 2022: Submission to the Treasury Consultation on the 2022 Employment White Paper

In this submission, the Roundtable addresses several topics being considered in the Treasury consultation process including: job security, fair pay and conditions; the care economy/care workforce; pay equity and equal opportunities  for women; and migration. We drew on our earlier submission to the Select Senate Inquiry into Work and Care (see below)

September 2022: Submission to Select Senate Committee Inquiry into Work and Care

The Roundtable made a submission to the Select Committee, chaired by Roundtable founder, Senator Barbara Pocock. The submission canvassed the urgent need for concrete action to address the dimensions and dynamics of work/care inequalities in Australia. It argued that  policy and regulatory settings need to be recalibrated and resourced to build sustainable work, sustainable care and a sustainable care workforce.

Twelve Roundtable members appeared before the Inquiry to provide evidence at a specially convened public hearing on 7 October.  The Hansard record of that hearing is here.

A number of Roundtable members also made their own submissions to the Inquiry, either in person or in written submissions, including Marian Baird, Natasha Cortis and Megan Blaxland, Fiona Macdonald, Alison Preston and Sara Charlesworth.

Evidence from Roundtable members is cited in the Committee’s Interim Report.

May 2022: Election Scorecard on Work Care and Family Policies 

In the scorecard the Roundtable assesses how the major parties’ election policies rate against the research evidence set out in our 2022 Election benchmarks below

April 2022:  Work, Care and Family Policies: Federal Election Benchmarks 2022

In the lead up to the 2022 Federal election, the Roundtable proposes a set of research-informed Policy Benchmarks against which election proposals for improving work, care and family outcomes in Australia can be assessed. In these Federal Election Benchmarks 2022, we provide a set of policy recommendations that put respect, work, care and equality at the centre of public life to support a strong and inclusive recovery and build the foundation of a resilient economy. Our Benchmarks provide research-informed policy recommendations that recognise and support the interconnections of work and care across society and the economy in five key domains: decent work; high-quality care infrastructure and a sustainable care workforce; gender pay equality; safe and respectful workplaces and  institutional support for decent work and decent care. these policy domains are connected and together inform the institutional context within which households make decisions about work and care.

This is our sixth set of Federal Election Benchmarks and arise out of Roundtable members’ collective research expertise and discussions at a workshop held in March 2022.

In late 2020 and 2021 the Roundtable has also continued to comment on specific policy settings and proposals for policy change to ensure that they better support Australia’s working carers:

June 2021: Submission to the National Skills Commission for the Care Workforce Labour Market Study

November 2021: Submission to the Consultation on Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012

December 2020: Work+Care in a Gender Inclusive Recovery: A Bold Policy Agenda for a New Social Contract