‘Not every woman wants to go back to work’, says Nationals deputy Perin Davey

Deputy Nationals leader Perin Davey says the Coalition should keep an open to backing a change to the tax system allowing mums and dads to split their income.

Deputy Nationals leader Perin Davey. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Deputy Nationals leader Perin Davey says not every woman wants to go back into the workforce after having a child, arguing the Coalition should keep an open mind to backing a change to the tax system allowing mums and dads to split their income giving families more flexibility.

As the Coalition prepares to lay out a policy platform to win back women voters, Senator Davey said the idea of income splitting between partners – preventing the higher-earning partner from entering a steeper tax bracket – had merit.

While stressing it was her own “thought bubble” and not Coalition policy, Senator Davey said income splitting could make it easier for a mum or dad to stay home for longer if they wish.

She said the conversation needed to shift away from encouraging both parents back into work as soon as possible after a birth, to providing a system that offered mums and dads the choice to stay at home to raise children.

“I would support a very close look at income splitting,” Senator Pavey said.

“It gives families the choice. We could look at how we address the tax-free threshold when one is a stay-at-home parent, for example.

“There is a lot of pressure on women at the moment to get straight back into the workforce and not every woman wants to do that.”

In a speech to the Sydney Institute on Monday night, opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume signalled the Coalition was investigating policies that would make it easier for female entrepreneurs to access capital.

Senator Hume accused Labor of patronising Australian women by focusing on welfare to improve gender equality, vowing the Coalition would instead have policies providing women with opportunity to “genuinely choose their own path”.

“It is patronising in the extreme to insist women need to be compensated for their gender,” she said. “For Liberals, real women’s empowerment comes from creating opportunities for partici­pation, the removal of barriers, institutional and cultural, so women can genuinely choose their own path.”

A spokeswoman for the Albanese government said Senator Hume’s description of Labor policies as welfare “demonstrate a clear lack of understanding of the barriers women face to genuine equality”.

“Extending paid-parental leave to 26 weeks for new parents, paying super on commonwealth paid-parental leave, making childcare cheaper, closing the gender pay gap, delivering wage increases in the care economy, and giving tax cuts to every Australian woman who pays tax are not welfare measures,” the spokeswoman said. “They are important structural changes to improve economic security for women and, in doing so, reduce gender inequality in Australia.”

The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent said the Coalition needed to commit to ambitious childcare and paid-parental leave policies to improve its standing among women.

“No credible conversation about supporting the economic participation or financial security of women can occur without tackling early childhood education and care and paid parental leave,” Ms Dent said.