An increasing shortfall of childcare workers will put the brakes on the government’s productivity plans, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher acknowledges, as big business calls for women’s workforce participation to be treated as a core economic issue | ...
An increasing shortfall of childcare workers will put the brakes on the government’s productivity plans, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher acknowledges, as big business calls for women’s workforce participation to be treated as a core economic issue.
“These aren’t nice things that you do on the side, aged care and childcare and things like that, these are core and growing and massive parts of our service economy,” she said. The Business Council of Australia has called for the advancement of women to be one of the seven economic “resets” it wants to emerge from the summit.“We need confirmation that one of the biggest injections to economic growth comes from increasing the participation of women in the workforce and enabling them to progress, advance and lead,” BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.
“I’m not going to say we’re going to solve everything immediately, but we’re going to have a real damn good crack at it,” Gallagher said. She called for lateral thinking about immediate improvements as well as longer-term structural fixes, saying there was no one solution. This could include expanding existing programs that were helping women with older children get back into the workforce, as well as addressing the childcare needs of the cohort with younger kids.
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