diavolina

All being well, my husband and I will be moving out to Perth in the next year, and are trying to work out when the best time to start a family would be after we go i.e. if sooner rather than later would be better or vice versa.

For example, things like maternity pay/leave - as far as I know both mothers and fathers get 18 weeks paid leave at minimum wage, is that correct? Is that paid by the government or your employer? If it's paid by the government, does it come under the two year period where immigrants cannot claim any benefits i.e. we'll need to wait 2 years if we want to be eligible for maternity/paternity pay?

My husband thinks it would be a good idea to start trying as soon as we get out there, which would mean we'd be living on just his salary for a little while (plus my maternity pay if I'm entitled to it). He'll be working as a teacher. Is this at all doable or are we completely kidding ourselves?

Also, how do things like maternity care work in Australia? I know as a permanent resident I'll be entitled to Medicare - is the level of care similar to the NHS? I assume the care and facilities will be better if we have private medical insurance, but I read somewhere that this often won't pay out for maternity services in the first year. Does anyone know if this is correct?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

odyssey

I had private insurance but ended up going through the normal hospital and the care was great, no complaints at all. I have had 3 children here and it was a breeze. The care is different to the UK, but I think its good - just forget all those health visitors popping by or showing any interest in you. I went home with my second and never went for any sort of appointment again and noone ever noticed

rozellem

Having a baby on medicare is just brilliant, in my opinion. I am about to go through it again and cant fault them. Yes, most private medical aids will have wait a year before their maternity bit kicks in, but you honestly dont need it. Only thing I am using it for this time, is for paying for a private room. Last time I had my son at 11 months of being on the plan. They gave me a private room anyway, because they were not busy.

http://www.familyassist.gov.au/
Do your research on the maternity/paternity scheme. There is also family assist and a possible baby bonus, if you are on PR and qualify.

edmontron

A colleague of mine, when he became a father, took 2 weeks off work. I think it was his annual leave. Don't expect anything when it comes to paternal leave. I have also heard of several women, who lost their jobs in connection with maternity leave. I believe most people have private health insurance to cover child birth.

fish.01

Payments that assist in the care of children are not subject to the newly arrived residents 2 year waiting period so I doubt this scheme is either.

From July the paid parental leave can only be paid by your employer. The money is given to the employer by the govt to pay all their eligible staff. Not sure if there is any minimum time you need to have worked for an employer...the family assistance office would answer this via email if no-one can help you. Many companies also had there own paid parental leave schemes running before this new govt scheme arrived last year. Some of these company schemes are still running. Many stipulated you must work for the company for 12 months before being eligible.

The 12 month waiting period for maternity benefits under private hospital insurance is "usually" based around the date of birth so you only need to wait 3 months before you fall pregnant.

fish.01

The paid parental leave is transferrable/shareable between the mother and father but they both can't be taking it at the same time.
(Source: http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/guides_act...guide-2.3.html)

Being sacked because of pregnancy is illegal just like almost all western countries. There have been many successful cases bought against employers but I guess not everybody wants to go down that route. Many employers will try to push laws like this so it takes constant vigilance by employment bodies to ensure offenders are stopped.

The majority of people use public hospital for child birth.
(Source: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/...b10880_fm.html)

HelenTD

I have had 2 children in Perth, the first in a public hospital (a horrible experience) and the second in a private hospital (a lovely experience). I know several mums who've had babies at the Family Birth Centre at King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH), the largest maternity hospital in WA. They have been happy with the care, but the unit is used for normal deliveries and is only for a short time, then quickly home, but they do offer a service where a midwife visits you at home for a few days http://www.kemh.health.wa.gov.au/bro...s/wnhs0280.pdf. If you develop complications then you are transferred to the main part of the hospital. These facilities are for public and private patients.

There are other smaller hospitals around with maternity services. A large private hospital is St John of God, Subiaco, but the doctors tend to rule rather than midwives and Caesarean rates are higher. WA has one of the highest rates in Australia, and Australian C-section rates are higher than the UK.

You can get more specific details on dedicated mums and babies sites such as www.essentialbaby.com.au, www.bellybelly.com.au and www.bubhub.com.au. You need to look up information specifically for Perth as things tend to be a bit different over here.

diavolina

Thanks for your replies everyone. I've done a bit more research and am finding the parental leave policy a bit confusing, but I think it's only available to parents who work and are taking time off to be the primary carer of the baby. So basically I wouldn't be entitled to it at all if I got pregnant soon after moving to Oz, and my husband would only be entitled to it if I went to work and left him at home with the baby.

I checked on a website for teachers in Western Australia and it looks like men get a week's paternity leave if they're not the main carer - it's not much is it

What do people think about the idea of trying to live on one wage? I know the cost of living is high and I have no idea how far his salary would stretch. From what I can tell he'd be on roughly $65-70,000. Sounds a lot to me but it probably isn't is it?

fish.01

Average wage for men working full time is 80,000 and obviously some must have a non working wife and be earning below this. It can be done but the size of your rent/mtge would determine how hard it is I think.

paddyo

Living on $65-70k is doable but forget about glamorous seaside suburbs! Be realistic with your expectations and you will be ok. WA can be high cost of living due to all the well paid mining workers there so a nice quiet suburb would be your best bet.

edmontron

It may be possible with no children and a small mortgage... but definitely no money left to travel to Europe "ever" again.

edmontron

Sounds like a rather high average salery - where have you got that figure from?

chris955

As of a month ago the average wage was $65,000 and of course that isn't what the average man in the street earns.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/averag...u-122605563802

HelenTD

I searched for average salaries in WA and found a post by ABCDiamond on another website, where he refers to ABS 6306.0 – Employee Earnings and Hours (Jan 2011). If you look up the latest stats for Feb 2011, it looks like the figure for male workers in WA is $83,496.40, using the weekly figure for full-time adult ordinary time earnings (on the original section) x 52. The equivalent figure for females is $60,340.80.

fish.01

The ABS as per HelenTD's post.

You might not have noticed the "Average wage for men working full time" - as per the OP's suggested situation.