The Abbott Government will be a one term government if they don't address their women problem

Prior to the September 2013 election, then opposition leader, and now Prime Minister, Tony Abbott said that he would be the "infrastructure Prime Minister" and that Australia would be "open for business".  He also said that he would be the Minister for Women.

When he announced his first cabinet there was major criticism from all political corners concerned about the lack of women.  At that point in time Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was the only one to make it into cabinet.

Fast forward to over a year since he was elected as Prime Minister and Abbott is still being criticised for his "women problem" which he vehemently denies saying he loves women. 

There are two important political events and actions which make me think that the Government does in fact have an issue with women but that women have an issue with the Government.  It's a bit of a chicken/egg situation.  So let's talk about that today.

Every Prime Minister has their trademark policy.  For Gillard and Rudd it was the carbon tax.  For Abbott it is the paid parental leave scheme.  Under Abbott's proposal, women who have children will be able to claim six months of their wage.  It would however be capped at $100,000 (so $50,000).  This has been met with much opposition from the Australian public with people concerned that Abbott is only helping out wealthy women on high wages.

However, people are forgetting one other major major major issue with paid parental leave.  It's great the Government wants to make it easier for women to have children and support them early in life, but getting a full wage for six months doesn't compensate for the next 4.5 years when the child needs to go to daycare.  Australian daycare costs anywhere from $70 to $150 a day, depending on whereabouts you send your kids and how many you have. 

This is a huge problem because the average woman's wage, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald is around $50,000 by the time she's in her 40s.  Men's is significantly higher.  What this means is that when a married couple choose to have children, more often than not the woman will have to stay at home because of the sheer cost of childcare.

Let's take the average Aussie woman.  She earns $50,000 a year plus superannuation.  After tax that is $41,453.  Childcare on the other hand, lets say the woman has two children and is married.  If she sends her two kids to daycare that's $90 per child or $180 per day.  Each week that is $900 for five days a week.  If you multiply that by 48 weeks then that's $43200.  That is actually more than the average woman's take home pay.  She's in deficit by $1747.  Even with Family Tax Benefits Part A and FTB B, the average family would only be better off by around $4724.15 (assuming they qualify for the full amount of FTB B and not FTB A).  It makes more economic sense for a woman to stay at home, but the problem with that is women's careers do not advance as fast as men's.  They miss out on contributing to their superannuation, and if that's the case then if the couple divorces then the woman is more likely to end up in poverty later in life.

Let's say the couple only has one child.  That's $21,600 a year in childcare.  The couple has two options.  Either stop at one child so they are in a good economic position, or they could delay having another child for five years so that their pockets don't take too much of a hit.

If a couple has two children at once, then on the average woman's salary, the couple will make a loss and it's not viable for the woman to work.

The Daily Telegraph today reported that childcare is expected to go up in the next year or so.  What this means is that women are actually still going to be faced with the choice, children or career.  With the current Government's policy it's not economically viable for women to work.  The policy is designed to keep women answerable to men, because let's face it, if you don't have money, you don't have power and if you don't have power you have to rely on someone else to make decisions for you.

The Government doesn't seem to understand the problems women face, and that's probably because there are only two women in cabinet (up from one a week ago).  By not having women in cabinet these issues simply aren't aired and behind closed doors there's a chance that the cabinet ministers are saying "oh don't worry about that, we're in charge, women can answer to us".  Maybe not in those words and maybe not at all, but sometimes you wonder.

Surely the Government would be better to subsidise childcare rather than making it harder for women to work.  Surely they'd be better to open daycare centres with flexible hours rather than your standard 9-5 situation.  And surely they'd be better to reduce the cost of childcare so that women can work and contribute to the economy.

If the Abbott Government keeps going the way they are they're going to end up with no female voters and just as a one term government despite other policies stacking up.  The Abbott Government is effectively saying that women must answer to men and not have their own careers or freedoms.