Career mums wary of jobs in regional cities

AN acute shortage of childcare is causing professional women to turn their backs on regional Australia.

AN acute shortage of childcare is causing professional women to turn their backs on regional Australia.

Kay Morrison, president of Business and Professional Women, which has more than 1000 members, mostly in smaller cities such as Perth, Bunbury, Darwin and Alice Springs, said professional women were reluctant to take jobs in centres where childcare was scarce, and found it difficult to work even in cities because childcare was difficult to manage.

She backed calls for tax breaks for working women, saying: "Professional women at the start of their careers often find themselves paying hundreds of dollars a week for childcare.

"They want to be productive, they want to keep their skills, but they can't."

Ms Morrison said all childcare should be treated equally.

Parents who use long-daycare centres are eligible for a government benefit and childcare tax rebate, but parents who use nannies are not.

Liberal MP Brownyn Bishop last week tabled a report recommending tax deductibility for all childcare expenses.

Women barristers joined the debate yesterday, saying it was absurd for the Australian Taxation Office not to recognise the nexus between income and childcare. Simone Jacobson, convenor of the Women Barristers Association in Victoria, said barristers "are among those who work odd hours, who see there is an obvious link between childcare and work".

"Unless you book your child in full-time, you can't work," she said.

"It's a problem for all women who work irregular hours. Obstetricians, all of a sudden, they have to go in and deliver a baby. They need nannies."

Denise Bradley, vice-chancellor and president of the University of South Australia, and a mother of four, said the debate over the cost, inflexibility and scarcity of childcare was overdue.

"I have a deep personal experience of actually being responsible for other people's lives, but also wanting to have a life of my own," she said. "I wanted not just a job, but a career. But it's not easy."

While Professor Bradley supported tax deductibility for all childcare fees, including nanny wages, she said the real issue was flexibility. "People are seen as a bad employee if they don't have their bum on the seat the whole time," she said.

"Professional employees shouldn't be locked in the office like that. We should be focused on key outcomes, rather than the time you are in the office."

Women who operate small business are hit for fringe benefits tax if they try to provide childcare for themselves or their employees, while large corporations are able to apply for an exemption, by providing childcare on-site.