'Artificial division' must end: ACTU

(AAP) With the fight for maternity leave virtually won, the next challenge is to end the artificial division between working and stay-at-home mums, ACTU president Sharan Burrow says.

Both sides of politics are committed to introducing some form of parental leave,
with the Rudd government likely to implement a scheme next year.
But Ms Burrow says mothers who aren't employed look like being left behind their
working counterparts.
"It's time to end the artificial division when, almost universally, women are in the
workforce at the time of the birth of their first child and they will be again, in
the majority, as their children get older," Ms Burrow told the National Press Club
on Wednesday.
The Productivity Commission this week recommended the commonwealth fund a 20-week
parental leave scheme in which working parents receive up to $12,000 following the
birth of a child.
Mothers would be able to take 18 weeks leave at the minimum wage and fathers two
weeks, or vice-versa.
But stay-at-home mothers would only be eligible for a maternity allowance worth up
to $6,800 pre-tax.
That is simply unacceptable, Ms Burrow says.
"We are concerned with the situation of stay-at-home mums.
"We are disappointed they didn't get equal treatment (in the commission's draft
report)," the ACTU president said.
"Today I commit to those mothers that we will campaign to lift the baby bonus (or
maternity allowance) to the equivalent of the maternity leave payment for working
women."