Will the real Tony Abbott please stand up? Look, I don't like to have a go (I'm not a small business person, after all). But our Tones is regressing.
Gone is the feminist defender of new mums; the kind of man you could grab a double-shot skim latte with while swapping tips on getting little'uns to try green veggies (send all tips to this way). This is the man, let's not forget, who until a few short months ago was offering all new mums half a year's pay at their own salary.
This is the man who insisted in the face of fierce opposition (much of it, shamefully, from feminists themselves) that this was not welfare for the rich, but a long-overdue workplace entitlement for women.
I supported his scheme because, by putting the onus on big business to pool their resources to provide parental leave, it removed the incentive for any one business to discriminate against hiring a woman to cut costs. It also would also have brought us closer to the widely agreed six-month period for promoting bonding between mums and bubs.
But it appears it was all an act. Underneath the feminist facade was, all along, the hairy chested, budgie-smuggler-sporting Tones of old: the manly eater of onions, the high-vis vested friend of the tradies. It was Tony Abbott as workplace relations minister in 2002 who said we'd see "compulsory paid maternity leave, over this government's dead body, frankly. It just won't happen." And we should have believed him the first time.
Even worse, Tony 3.0 is now on the hunt for welfare cheat mums, so-called "double dipping" by collecting both their employer's paid parental leave and the government's scheme of minimum wage for 18 weeks.
Our Prime Minister once left a voicemail message on my work phone thanking me for a column I wrote supporting his more generous paid parental leave scheme. He confessed he was more used to getting brickbats than bouquets over the policy.
The paid parental leave debacle now consuming an otherwise soft and friction-free budget, is testament to the stubbornness of ageing white men and to the durability of their ideas, even really bad ones.
When the all-male Expenditure Review Committee members huffed their scornful reproach and conspired to nail greedy mothers involved in welfare "fraud", as Hockey readily agreed it was, it eluded their lofty wisdom that (a) this was egregious nonsense (b) their policy shift contradicted a core value to which the Prime Minister - no less - was thoroughly welded, and (c) some of their own wives had taken maternity leave from their employers, and the basic federal government scheme of $11,500 over 18 weeks. Oops.
The stupidity of Abbott and Hockey now paring back entitlements are too numerous to list, but include that right up until months ago, they had wanted to pay $75,000 for six months to wealthier mothers – non means-tested. It was Abbott's "signature" policy remember – specifically confected to fix his "women problem". How's that looking now? Hockey had been its next most enthusiastic proponent. Both had argued it was an employment entitlement akin to annual leave and thus an inalienable right. Once a bitter opponent of paid parental leave (over my dead body) Abbott became unstoppable - a born-again zealot intent on staring down colleagues after foisting it on them without consultation.
Now he's changed again. New mothers seeking way less than his extravagant scheme would have paid out, are morally, if not legally crook, and their employers, scammers if they offer back-to-work incentive bonuses for their valued employees.
riding along on a push-bike song...
Go to this website, see the pictures and watch the video at the end.
http://yourfriendshouse.com/media/tony-abbott-on-snapchat-is-the-best-thing-youll-see-all-week/
tones, you're an unreal cunning rat...
Will the real Tony Abbott please stand up? Look, I don't like to have a go (I'm not a small business person, after all). But our Tones is regressing.
Gone is the feminist defender of new mums; the kind of man you could grab a double-shot skim latte with while swapping tips on getting little'uns to try green veggies (send all tips to this way). This is the man, let's not forget, who until a few short months ago was offering all new mums half a year's pay at their own salary.
This is the man who insisted in the face of fierce opposition (much of it, shamefully, from feminists themselves) that this was not welfare for the rich, but a long-overdue workplace entitlement for women.
I supported his scheme because, by putting the onus on big business to pool their resources to provide parental leave, it removed the incentive for any one business to discriminate against hiring a woman to cut costs. It also would also have brought us closer to the widely agreed six-month period for promoting bonding between mums and bubs.
But it appears it was all an act. Underneath the feminist facade was, all along, the hairy chested, budgie-smuggler-sporting Tones of old: the manly eater of onions, the high-vis vested friend of the tradies. It was Tony Abbott as workplace relations minister in 2002 who said we'd see "compulsory paid maternity leave, over this government's dead body, frankly. It just won't happen." And we should have believed him the first time.
Even worse, Tony 3.0 is now on the hunt for welfare cheat mums, so-called "double dipping" by collecting both their employer's paid parental leave and the government's scheme of minimum wage for 18 weeks.
Our Prime Minister once left a voicemail message on my work phone thanking me for a column I wrote supporting his more generous paid parental leave scheme. He confessed he was more used to getting brickbats than bouquets over the policy.
OK, Tones, time for your brickbat.
You're a rat.
read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/here-lies-tony-abbott-a-feminist-20150515-gh1vs5
conning themselves as well as conning us...
The paid parental leave debacle now consuming an otherwise soft and friction-free budget, is testament to the stubbornness of ageing white men and to the durability of their ideas, even really bad ones.
When the all-male Expenditure Review Committee members huffed their scornful reproach and conspired to nail greedy mothers involved in welfare "fraud", as Hockey readily agreed it was, it eluded their lofty wisdom that (a) this was egregious nonsense (b) their policy shift contradicted a core value to which the Prime Minister - no less - was thoroughly welded, and (c) some of their own wives had taken maternity leave from their employers, and the basic federal government scheme of $11,500 over 18 weeks. Oops.
The stupidity of Abbott and Hockey now paring back entitlements are too numerous to list, but include that right up until months ago, they had wanted to pay $75,000 for six months to wealthier mothers – non means-tested. It was Abbott's "signature" policy remember – specifically confected to fix his "women problem". How's that looking now? Hockey had been its next most enthusiastic proponent. Both had argued it was an employment entitlement akin to annual leave and thus an inalienable right. Once a bitter opponent of paid parental leave (over my dead body) Abbott became unstoppable - a born-again zealot intent on staring down colleagues after foisting it on them without consultation.
Now he's changed again. New mothers seeking way less than his extravagant scheme would have paid out, are morally, if not legally crook, and their employers, scammers if they offer back-to-work incentive bonuses for their valued employees.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/stupidity-of-abbott-and-hockey-indicates-they-have-not-learnt-from-mistakes-of-last-years-budget-20150515-gh2t27.html