Women primarily look after children and children are time consuming and dependent. Because of this it is very difficult for women to work full-time unless they have the support of Grandparents or other extended family members, or are being paid enough to afford childcare. Not many women are this privledged, and there are of course those women who choose to be the primary caretakers of their own children, and there is nothing wrong with this. The current political play however, only acknowledges women as ‘economic players’, and in the current workplace, where a woman juggles family responsibilities with often very insecure work placements (casual, one hour here, two hours there, on call, never knowing when their employer is going to call them in to work and low paid), only opens up more poverty and dysfunctions within the family unit and the social and community sector.

Get to the crux of the matter and you will find that there are very few part-time positions(look in careerone.com), full-time positions for some professionals and a lot of casual positions for qualified and other workers. The fact is we are no longer in an 'industrial age' and we can not rely upon manufacturing and mining to employ most of our citizens. We are in a 'technological and service' age, and this means that technology replaces many workers. It also means that many service orientated jobs are those that are done for 'free' because employers and the government do not want to pay these jobs.

Traditionally women have looked after children, the sick, the elderly, mentally ill, and disenfranchised and they did it under the banner of the Church, or under the support of a well-paying husband. Those days are gone, and now they do it mainly for 'free' under the banner of volunteerism. Currently, the Government saves $16.1 billion/year just on women volunteering, and many are qualified and experienced. Not only that, it costs the volunteer money to volunteer. A volunteer needs money for transport, National Police Clearances, training etc. Get rid of volunteering, pay people for the work they do and get employers to be accountable for their staff, and we will be way on our way to making a 'wealthier nation' one in which people will be respected and remunerated for their efforts, not only those at the top and on professional wages.

While I think it's important to focus on women, due to the discrimination, I think the bigger question is "How can we ensure that everyone who wants a full-time job can get one?"