20 October 1999

Maternity Protection Convention – Howard government sends all male delegation to ILO session on the Maternity Protection Convention!

The Howard government recently sent 12 male delegates to the 87th session of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conference to represent Australia in the debate on the review of the ILO Maternity Protection Convention No. 103. The only Australian woman at the conference, ACTU delegate Lisa Heap, was not recognised by the Australian government, and was forced to join an international union delegation in order to attend.

This session of the ILO was of critical importance to women workers in Australia as an ILO report on implementation of this particular convention recently highlighted Australia’s appalling record with respect to this issue. (Australia is only one of three industrialised countries which fail to provide paid maternity leave and health benefits by law).

The lack of any representation of women in this delegation to the ILO highlights the federal government’s lack of commitment to this critical issue and the rights of women workers generally. It is totally unacceptable that the government did not send a woman to this conference and that they refused to recognise the only Australian woman there simply because she was there representing the interests of workers.

What is of greater concern is what these ‘representative’ Australian males argued for when they got there! It was reported that the Australian delegation supported pregnancy testing prior to employment and maternity leave rights only applying to full-time permanent employees. They opposed maternity leave applying to adoption and they also opposed paid maternity leave. The Australian government also proposed the deletion of a paragraph that allows for the extension of maternity leave in case of illness, complications or risk of complications arising out of pregnancy.