Tony Abbott, Australia’s new prime minister, is being variously praised and reviled for his considered support for pro-life laws and for preserving the definition of marriage. Less noticed is how his social conservatism has shaped his economic program. Reihan Salam explains :
Abbott’s social conservatism has influenced his views on domestic policy in many respects, as he makes clear in his 2009 book Battlelines . In praising John Howard’s successful Liberal-National government, Abbott cites the fact that it tripled spending on child care and doubled the number of child-care places available, and its support for more flexible workplace arrangements which contributed to a sharp increase in the labor force participation of women. He also favorably referenced the Howard’s government’s Baby Bonus, a universal payment to new mothers, which was recently abolished by the Labor government.Far from being some quirk or exception, Abbott writes at great length about his support for paid maternity leave in Battlelines. In the book, he sees it as part and parcel of a larger “stimulus package for families.” American supporters of family-friendly tax cuts will find Abbott’s call for removing the means test on Australia’s Family Tax Benefit Part A heartening. “If this were done,” Abbott writes, “people bringing up children would receive a benefit based not on their need but on the contribution that they are making to Australia’s future,” a line that might easily have been penned by National Review ’s Ramesh Ponnuru . Abbott goes further, suggesting that his proposal “would be a very significant recongition of the importance of parenting and the value of children and should, over time, have an appreciable impact on the birth rate.” Let’s keep Abbott’s support for family-friendly tax reform in mind when U.S. conservatives start championing it.
Salam concludes:
Tony Abbott’s political success demonstrates that family-friendly conservatism can succeed . . . . Abbott has managed to combine classic pro-market politics with a call for revamping the welfare state along pro-family lines, and my guess is that this combination could prove just as successful in the United States. Indeed, this combination could go a long way towards demonstrating that the GOP is culturally modern and responsive to the interests of middle-income households with children, a large and culturally diverse constituency.
