ABSTRACT
Caregiving is a contentious policy issue as the twentieth century ends, as it was when governments turned to the family wage. In Australia, politicians face a volatile electorate over the extent to which tax and occupational welfare systems should support middle- and upper-income households, and whether this might further weaken the residual, ‘safety net’ system of poverty alleviation and efforts to require employers to heed family needs (through the Industrial Commission). Most modern welfare states have made two assumptions: that care should remain mostly private and that care is a public responsibility, with professionalisation from cradle to grave, or from early childhood education through to geriatric treatment. In contrast, the caring-related entitlements of the welfare state are more recent and residual. A home-makers’ allowance or rebate affects most married women because women earn less than men. Only women with highly marketable skills can or could earn enough to be uninfluenced by work disincentives and the childcare related costs of employment.
