Politics with Michelle Grattan
News:Politics
In his budget reply, Anthony Albanese said women have suffered most during the pandemic, but were reduced to a footnote in the budget. He promised a Labor government would undertake a generous reshaping of the childcare subsidy to enable more women to join the workforce or to work more hours.
This week, Michelle Grattan talks to Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood who, in writing for the Australian Financial Review, described the budget as “blokey”:
“We look at those areas that have received direct support - construction… the energy sector, defence, manufacturing, all of those areas where the government has put direct money into a particular sector - they tend to be male dominated sectors.
"And actually often they’re not the ones that have taken the hardest hit in this recession.
"The sectors that have been hit really hard: hospitality, tourism, the arts, recreation, administrative services tend to be actually slightly more female dominated… we really don’t see any direct assistance for those sectors in the budget. ”
When asked about the budget generally Wood, the president of the Economic Society of Australia, is concerned all the eggs have been put into the “private sector basket”.
“If it doesn’t pay off, then we may see unemployment sticking around for a long time to come.”
In the Grattan institute’s report, co-authored by Wood, and titled Cheaper Childcare, Wood endorsed reform in a similar vein to Albanese’s proposal.
“Our numbers suggest that for every dollar that you spend reforming the subsidy…you return more than two dollars in additional GDP,” she says.
“The Labor reforms… you’re probably talking, if its $2 billion a year… something in the vicinity of $5 billion return each year for GDP.”
Chris Bowen on the recession, aged care and priorities for health policy
Former Greens leader Richard Di Natale on COVID, climate and his successor
Professor Barney Glover on the bleak years ahead for higher education
Jim Chalmers on tax cuts, inequality, and the Queensland election
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells on aged care – what needs to be done differently
Patricia Sparrow on the need for aged care reform
Geoff Kitney on a life in journalism and the contemporary media landscape
After the crisis: what lessons can be drawn from the management of COVID-19 for the recovery process?
Jane Halton on the risk of 'vaccine nationalism'
Christopher Pyne on being 'the ultimate insider'
two leading economists on Australia’s post-COVID economy
Politics with Michelle Grattan: The Battle for Eden-Monaro – interviews with Kristy McBain and Fiona Kotvojs
Clive Hamilton and Richard McGregor on Australia-China relations
Trust, democracy and COVID-19: A British perspective
Pat Turner on Closing the Justice Gap
Statistician David Gruen and the race for real-time pandemic data
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on saving Australia’s tourism and construction industries
Jim Chalmers on JobKeeper’s flaws and the Eden-Monaro byelection
Democracy 2025 - The role of the APS in a post COVID-19 world with Michelle Grattan, Mark Evans, Peter Shergold, and Renée Leon
Paul Kelly on the risk of a COVID-19 second-wave
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free