One of the great understandings in a community is family and the relationship between mum, dads and a bucket of nappies. – Senator Bill Heffernan explaining why the deputy Labor leader, Julia Gillard who hasn’t had children would not make a suitable Prime Minister. He also described her as ‘deliberately barren’.
This is the kind of comment that makes non-parents hate parents and all women hate Heffernan. This arrogance. You can’t know about community unless you’ve had children? Please. In my opinion you can’t know a hell of a lot about raising children until you’ve raised children. I certainly didn’t, in retrospect. But you can know a lot about community, and sacrifice, and hardship, and there are many ways to participate in community, without having children. Besides how many politicians know that much about nappy buckets. I hasten a guess that when you’re working 70 hours a week outside the home you’re a workaholic who is thought of highly at work, and the workplace just wouldn’t function without you, but you know next to nothing about nappy buckets.
Personally I think all political parties are standing on shakey ground with this nappy bucket comment. They all talk about prioritising working families, but just when did it become so ok to prioritise working families over everyone else? You can’t say you prioritise industry (too truthful), or that you prioritise workers (too union-friendly), or that you prioritise families (too right-wing religious), and god know no-one would prioritise non-working families (too left-wing), but ‘working families’ has the right mix of ingredients. After all nobody would dare say they’re against working families.
But how insulting is the prioritising of working families to people without children? Don’t they consider themselves part of family too? Aren’t they contributing to the community? Don’t they have the right to some priority in policy planning and fiscal generosities? The term ‘working families’ creates an unnecessary division, an us and a them. It undermines the goodwill people without children might otherwise feel towards people with children. Sure, raising children contributes to a ‘social benefit’ that all of society enjoys, and its costly for the individuals raising those children, but telling everyone you’re prioritising ‘working families’ must surely niggle away at the cohesiveness of parents and non-parents. It also makes women feel like their only value is in childbearing. Although, ‘deliberately barren’ is such a ludicrous term, such an unfortunately revealing comment on the right-wing agenda that however hurtful it is to women it is also kind of soothing to see Heffernan and those like him exposed so badly.
Heffernan until this week has been standing by his comments, but a begrudging apology was issued in the time it took me to complete this post because with a close election looming this year in Australia politicians can’t afford to annoy anyone in a ‘working family’, even women.
That comment was absolutely shocking. And scary. Where are they going with all this?
I couldn’t agree more. I work with a couple of people who through choice or circumstance do not have children, and I am one of Mr Howard’s favoured group (even if I am a *working* mother). I feel embarrassment and even shame every time Mr Howard decides I’m more worthy of support than they are. I firmly believe in supporting families… alongside all other members of the community. One can be supportive and affirming of the various struggles of families without precluding the needs of others.
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