Baby bonus in aust...

Far out, why cant NZ pay that to new mums instead of the crap they pay us for 14 weeks.

So is this on top of the leave pymnt or this bonus is it??

The Baby bonus is a joke here!! You see teenage girls that should still be in school getting pregnant just to purchase a plasma TV/entertainment system for their boyfriends and/or 35 year old women getting pregnant to support their next drug habbit/fix!! (Sorry for the generalisation but thats pretty much it!! ) And its really sad. I work as an employment consultant (contracted to the Aus Federal Govt to get people off govt payments i.e. the dole and some parenting payments) and I see it every day!

IMHO its a BS scheme. The Govt has now caught on to the fact that this is happening so they changed it to fortnight installments instead of one lump sum for 17 years and under.
Now they are thinking of changing it again to offer vouchers for specific places (Baby products) so the money is definitely spent on baby and not mum and dad, drugs/alcohol or gambling.

The whole idea of it is to entice the late 20's and 30's to have children. BUT there isnt any decent maternity leave legislation here so going on maternity leave is financially difficult. When leaving a company to take maternity leave the employers must be in a position to offer you that same job (or something similar) when you plan to return but there is no maternity payment paid from the employers (unless you work for an awesome company which are few and far between).

IMHO I dont think NZ should adopt the idea! NZ has great maternity legislation and financial assistance already it would only create chaos like here in Aus.

I don't think that NZ does enough for new mothers, I come from Sweden and we get paid for a year and a half as well as the father getting 6 months.
Makes it possible for parents to stay at home and take care of the baby [:])]

I got nothing for each child (no PPL or that $1200) and we survived just fine. I also hate generalisations about young parents I know a lot of them and they are no worse than tparents in their 20s or 30s in regards to buying crap instead of stuff for baby.

I think you'd have to be seriously screwed in the head to have a kid for a plasma tv

A few people I know in Australia have asked me if I would go back to Oz to have the baby, hence getting the baby bonus!! NO!!
(Would be nice to have my family close by though...they are coming over here a few weeks later )

I would have to fly over early (What is the cut-off for flying?)DH wouldnt be able to spend much time there...would he make it for the birth? Who knows. I have an established relationship with my midwife here and can go to a birthing centre, whereas in my home area it would be the public hospital with midwives who I don't know.
It is a good payout for the families who will use it properly yet I can also understand why some people are now getting instalments.
It is also interesting to see how other countries work out PPL and family bonuses etc. Wow, SofiaJ...Sweden is very family oriented with what they offer new mums!

ETA: bad spelling!

Edited by aussiegirl

Thanks for that rianna. In all honesty, I really don't think I would go back to Australia...well not in the forseable future anyway! Purely because DH and I are really settled here, have our house and he has his own business. I am an Australian citizen though, born and bred there for 27 years, so I do have a bit of homesickness every now and then!

The 6 months thing sounds about right... I havent paid any tax over there for 5 years anyway (I have here in NZ though!) so I daresay I wouldn't be eligible for the bonus on those grounds alone.

All the best with your move back here to NZ (I see on your ticker its Jan next year)

Edited by aussiegirl