Australian Government wants employers to invest in staff’s child care

The initiative would help employers retain skilled staff.

Minister Kate Ellis visited employers at CSL (a global biopharmaceutical company) at Parkville Victoria. CSL are benefiting from the company’s investment in on-site child care and progressive workplace diversity policies.

"Thinking Kids Early Learning Centre offers us an insight into what our future workplaces can look like with an employer like CSL who are prepared to invest in supporting their staff and their child care needs," Minister Ellis said.

“This child care centre has been a huge success and builds on CSL’s progressive diversity policies including up to two years parental leave, 12 weeks paid maternity leave and flexible working conditions such as part-time work, job sharing and the ability to work from home,” she added.

Minister Ellis said Australia is not yet considering the full potential of women as members of the paid workforce.

It was recently estimated that if Australia achieved an extra 6% of women participating in the workforce, their GDP would be about AU$25 billion (€20.2 billion) higher. That is an increase of about 1.4%.

“That’s why the Government is supporting women’s participation through initiatives including Paid Parental Leave, enhanced protection against discrimination on the basis of caring responsibilities and providing rights for workers under the Fair Work Act to request flexible working arrangements if they have a child under school age,” said Ms Ellis.

The Government wants to encourage more employers like CSL to consider their employees’ child care needs and provide more child care options to help meet demand and retain staff.