Maternity Payment - More Middle Class Welfare

"I also have a plan to continue stockpiling leave after my year's leave without pay so I can take 6-8 week trips every couple of years! And thinking ten years down the track I have fantasies of using any maternity leave I might have as a chance to haul any family I might have off to live somewhere exotic, but that is just a fantasy!" Comment left on The Age Travel Blog, 18 June, 2008.

Yes, this is a real person. And this is their fantasy.

Maybe I'm also living in a fantasy land by believing that maternity leave, if offered, should be used to take care of your new born child. Am i so far from reality in saying that? Perhaps i am.

Now we have the newest proposal - to pay parents to leave their place of employment in order for them to have children.

First off we have maternity leave, which requires an employer to leave a position open while someone heads off to do something that is their choice. A new employee comes in to take their place, only to be replaced themselves when the maternity leave recipient heads back to work. If they do come back to work that is.

I have no complaint if they don't, id like to see at least one parent stay at home with a young child. And before you think it, no, I'm not suggesting that only women should stay at home with the kids. Not even slightly. I just think that one parent, father or mother should be with the child during its formative years. But i will address that later.

So unpaid maternity leave seems to be such a generally accepted practice, that the push is now on to pay parents to stay away. Great. So where do the funds for this maternity payment come from exactly?

Either we have the Government kicking in the fund, with singles like me throwing in their taxes to pay for this middle class welfare. Or business has to cough up the money to pay someone for contributing nothing to that same business. The latter of course leads to higher prices, it has to be factored in somehow, and i pay anyway.

This maternity payment of course will come on top of the $5000 baby bonus, family tax benefit part A, family tax benefit part B, child care tax rebate of $7500 per child when they do go back to work, private health insurance 30% rebate and i could go on. And on.

What a load of trash. People make choices in life don't they? Having children is a choice.

How much reward can we give parents for something that has happened, um, well, forever. People have kids. They make the choice. It shouldn't be up to me to support them.

.