Paid Parental Leave

Sue Moroney's Parental Leave and Employment Protection bill is getting a lot of air time at the moment, not least because the opposition has the numbers to pass it and the government will be forced to veto it.

I have been following the coverage on a number of blogs and there are few people arguing against it, rather they are arguing against the timing. What is really interesting is the nature of some of the comments on the blogs. A number of people seem to genuinely think that there tax dollars go directly to one single mum on the DPB, rather than being spent on a huge number of things in the public interest, many of which they benefit from.

One comment I read (I haven't been able to find it again unfortunately) was from a woman in her forties who had chosen not to have children and was a business owner, she felt if you couldn't avoid to take six months off after having children you shouldn't have them. She seems to be a little confused about the continued survival of the human race and what the entails. It also suggests that only the wealthy should be allowed to have children. I don't like the idea that having children is a human right, I prefer to think of it as a human privilege. But that privilege should be dependent on your ability to provide a loving and nuturing environment for your children, not how much money you have.

My favourite comment however is this one:

Fuck why don’t we all sit around home all day, let the brain dead liberal fucktards pay the bills, this shit makes me want to throw the towel in. These lefty fools would happily enslave us all to a future determined by the IMF and the commie fucks in the UN. Their is no free lunch. When my wife had our children she was working again in about two weeks, this country is turning into a fools paradise where reality belongs in another dimension and the grasshoppers play in the sun all day, it will end in tears.

I imagine this guy is constantly angry.