WORK-LIFE BALANCE

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. As the Hon. Robert Brokenshire pointed out, last weekend we celebrated Mother's Day. Can the minister advise the chamber how the South Australian government is supporting mothers to balance work and family commitments?

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:54): I thank the honourable member for his question and acknowledge how much he loves his mother. I thought the honourable member asking a previous question was going to go into how much we feel about our mothers on this special day, but obviously he had other things on his mind.

Mother's Day is a special day when we can show our appreciation for our mums. It is an ideal day to say thank you not just for being a mum but for juggling the many demands that being a mother brings with it. One such demand, which is increasingly felt by many mums, is achieving a balance between work and family commitments. In many families, men are no longer the sole breadwinner.

Times have changed, and many women either need or want to maintain their employment after having children. In 2009, 63 per cent of mothers with dependent children were in paid work. Our economy also relies on the contribution of working mothers, and the government is keen to increase women's participation rates in the workforce. In May 2010, women's participation rate was 58.3 per cent—lower than that in the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

Technological advances have seen a growth in a 24/7 workplace, where mobile phones, emails and changed work patterns encroach on family time. The workforce is still catching up with the flexibility that is required to deal with these advances. Working mothers often bear the brunt of the increased demands of working in a 24/7 environment, as the division of labour at home has also been slow to change, with women still doing around twice as much unpaid work as men, including caring for children and elderly parents.

South Australia's Strategic Plan includes a work-life balance target, which is to improve the quality of life for all South Australians through the maintenance of a healthy work-life balance. The government aims to achieve this by promoting the benefits of flexible work and leave arrangements to both employees and employers. Progressively, businesses are seeing the benefits of adopting flexible work arrangements, not just for women but for men, too. In the competition for skilled labour, flexible work arrangements attract new workers and enable businesses to retain their skilled and experienced employees, avoiding turnover and retraining costs.

The Work, Life and Workplace Flexibility report, produced in 2009 by the University of South Australia, indicates that just over one in five Australian employees had made a request for some work flexibility in the year preceding the survey. However, the rate of requests for women was almost twice that of men: 29.1 per cent compared with 16.3 per cent. SafeWork SA is working with South Australian employers to provide assistance in responding to these requests and to help take off the pressure from our working mums.

The agency has run master classes with South Australian employers to provide practical, hands-on assistance, to implement flexible innovations like access to compressed hours, expanded leave options, breastfeeding at work and working from home policies. SafeWork SA is also undertaking a quality, part-time work project, which is particularly relevant to working mothers. A women's choice to work part-time is usually driven by caring responsibilities, often to the detriment of career and salary.

SafeWork SA is working with a different industry each year to improve training, career and security of employment options for part-time workers. The government will continue to support SafeWork SA in its work to enable mothers and fathers to receive the support they need to achieve a suitable work-life balance.