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Order for Second Reading read.
The Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Tan Chuan-Jin): Mdm Speaker, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a second time".
Singapore is our home for family. Strong families are, and must remain, the basic building blocks of our society. For each of our families and our society, children are our future. With strong families and good support from society, our children can have a good start in life. In the coming years, my Ministry will continue to strengthen fundamental family relationships, and support vulnerable families.
Fathers play an important role in parenting, and shared parental responsibility should become a way of life in our society. During last year’s National Day Rally (NDR), our Prime Minister said that eligible fathers may be granted an extra week of paid paternity leave, with their employers’ approval. Employers who agree to grant this extra week of leave to employees may seek reimbursement from the Government. This is on top of the one week of paternity leave we have today, which is compulsory and which Government pays for.
To celebrate the Jubilee year, we had extended the extra week of paid leave to all fathers of Singaporean babies born on or after 1 Jan 2015. This additional week should allow fathers to be more active in raising their children. The Public Service took the lead by implementing this immediately.
Since the NDR announcement on 23 August 2015, enlightened employers have been granting their employees the extra week of paternity leave. This Bill allows employers to seek reimbursement for the leave taken by eligible employees. Eligible self-employed persons can likewise claim the loss of income from the Government for the additional week of leave taken. The reimbursement can take place from 1 July 2016, when the system is ready. Employers will still be reimbursed for leave taken from 24 August 2015 to 30 June 2016.
Members will also remember Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo announcing at the National Population and Talent Division’s Committee of Supply last month that this second week of paternity leave will be mandated from 1 January 2017. This will be done in the next round of CDCA amendments, together with the enhancements to the other leave schemes announced at NPTD’s Committee of Supply.
Separately, as announced at my Ministry’s Committee of Supply (COS) last month, we will extend the Child Development Account (CDA) benefits to Singaporean children of unwed parents. This includes the $3,000 CDA First Step grant. Children of unwed parents may be disadvantaged and require more support. The Child Development Co-Savings Scheme encourages unwed parents to contribute to the child’s CDA for his or her development needs, and the amount will be matched by the Government up to a cap. As CDA funds can only be used for approved educational and health-care related uses for the child, this can help to enhance the child's outcomes. We are doing up the system enhancement concurrently for this to kick in, likely for children born from the third quarter of this year.
Unwed mothers will also qualify for the full 16 weeks of maternity leave, for children born from early next year. The longer paid leave will provide unwed mothers with more time to care for their child in the early months. This provision will be included in the next round of the CDCA amendments.
MSF and NCSS will also work with the relevant VWOs and agencies to strengthen support for families with vulnerable, low-income unwed mothers. This is to enable them to make better-informed decisions to improve their financial and family stability, and ultimately enhance their child’s outcomes.
In conclusion, these legislative amendments are needed to carry out the enhancements that had been announced earlier at the NDR 2015 as well as COS 2016. I do seek Parliament’s agreement for the amendments, so that we can support families where it matters most. With that, Madam, I beg to move.
Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong (Non-Constituency Member): Mdm Speaker, the birth rate in Singapore seems to be recovering from record lows. In 2010, we hit our lowest number of citizen births at just over 30,000 babies born. In 2012, in the Chinese zodiac Year of the Dragon, citizen births increased to over 33,000 babies. The good news is that citizen births in the last two years have matched the auspicious Year of the Dragon. And in fact, last year citizen births almost hit 34,000 babies, the highest in a decade. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is hovering around 1.25, off the low of 1.16 in 2010.
There is some hope that we have turned the corner with regards to falling birth rates. However, it is still too early to tell whether the increased birth rate is a trend or a temporary rise due to positive sentiments brought out by the SG50 jubilee celebrations. I think we can be cautiously optimistic. I will touch on the optimistic part first.
I am optimistic because I believe the Government has been addressing the structural obstacles to higher birth rates. In 2013, The Workers’ Party, in response to the Government’s Population White Paper, published its own population policy paper after the White Paper debate in this House. In The Workers’ Party’s paper, we elaborated on seven obstacles that stood in the way of higher birth rates.
One, lack of work-life balance; two, escalating housing costs; three, income inequality; four, stressful education system; five, gender inequality in the family with regards to housework and childcare; six, pro-birth policies favouring higher income families; and seven, discrimination towards single-parent families.
The Government has been addressing some of these issues in the last few years. With this Bill, the Government is further enhancing paternity leave and is also addressing the last two structural obstacles that we have brought up: discrimination towards single-parent families and pro-birth policies favouring higher income families.
We have been arguing that, while having children inside of marriage should continue to be encouraged, the children born to unwed parents should not be denied the benefits that children of married parents received. We believe no children deserve to be disadvantaged and psychologically damaged for the norms their parents break.
Clause 2(b) of this Bill expands the eligibility of the Child Development Account co-savings scheme to, "any other child", without amending the purpose of the Act, which is to, "encourage married women to have more children". This amendment achieves the dual goals of encouraging births within marriage without discriminating against the children of unwed parents that we have called for.
We have also argued that the CDA scheme privileges higher income families with the spare cash to put away into the CDA. Middle income families just managing to make ends meet to support three children would need to lock up $24,000 in the CDA to reap the full benefits of dollar-for-dollar matching from the Government. Furthermore, as the quantum increases from $6,000 for each of the first two children, to $12,000 each for the third and fourth child, and $18,000 each for the fifth child and beyond, this actually encourages higher income couples who could make the larger savings to have more children.
The new CDA First Step grant of $3,000 addresses this issue of inequality. It does so by establishing baseline savings for all children regardless of the household income background. It is a good first step by the Government in addressing the inequalities facing families seeking to have children. Because equality matters.
While there are reasons to be optimistic because of the Government’s policy reversals and advancement, we should be very cautious in our optimism. We have the benefit of hindsight in the struggle against low birth rates for nearly 30 years now. Singapore’s TFR fell below the replacement level of 2.1 in 1976 and reached the first low of 1.4 in 1986. In 1987, the Government’s policy reversal from promoting birth control to encouraging Singaporeans to have more children, helped push the birth rate up in the following years. Many of the young couples having children today were born during the mini-baby boom caused by the policy reversal.
However, the TFR resumed its gradual decline in the 1990’s to hit the low of 1.4 in 2001 again. In reaction to the plunging TFR, the Government then launched the Baby Bonus scheme, which slowed the decline. But the decline continued through the 2000s till TFR reached the lowest in 2010.
So, what are the lessons here? First, the Government’s pro-birth policy is important and can be effective in halting or slowing down birth rate declines. However, most of the pro-birth policy changes have been reactive rather than proactive. The 1987 reversal reacting to the low in 1986, the Baby Bonus scheme reacting to the low in 2001, and the enhancements in the last few years reacting to the lowest in 2010. This reactiveness limits the effectiveness of pro-birth policies.
Instead of reacting to plunges and new lows in birth rates, I believe the Government should set a target of achieving a TFR of 1.4 in 2020 and a TFR of 1.7 by 2030. This will change the tone of the issue from being marked as a demographic problem to be struggled with to a performance target to be achieved, on par with many of the Government’s socio-economic policies. After all, the TFR is as much a socio-economic issue as it is a demographic issue.
The other lesson to be had here is that policies need to go beyond the carrot-and-stick approach and take a whole-of-Government approach to be effective over the long run. In this respect, there is one dot that the Government has not connected to the birth rate issue, and it should. One reason why pro-birth policies seem to be swimming against the tide in the 1990s and 2000s was because Singaporeans experienced growing socio-economic inequality and lingering gender inequality in those two decades. Equality matters for increasing birth rates. This has been shown in many studies in other developed countries. And on this issue, I would like to make three points.
First, gender equality matters a whole lot. As more fathers take on more responsibility in childcare, pro-birth policies such as those promoting flexi-work arrangements should adapt to help fathers realise their parenting aspirations. As employer and management mind-sets start to change due to the Government’s promotion of flexi-work arrangements through the Work-Life Grant, it would be important to help mould the new mind-sets to emphasise flexi-work arrangements are not meant only or mainly for working mothers, but should be made as accessible to working fathers too.
In this respect, the Government will need to change its own mind-set that establishes a hard association between mothers and child care. The Additional Child Care Subsidy for working mothers should be made gender-neutral and extended to working fathers, so that lower-income female homemakers with several children or elderly dependents are not denied the subsidy and could provide better care to the dependents.
The Government should also consider rewording section 3, subsection 1(a) of the Act which I quoted earlier, to, "encourage married couples to have more children", instead of "married women". This is so as to emphasise in our laws that the State does not place the burden of birth rates and thus the blame of low births solely on the motivations of women but recognise that the decision to have children and the raising of children is the shared responsibility of both spouses. The wording of the Child Development Co-Savings Act should be thoroughly looked at to emphasise this shared responsibility to have and raise more children.
Also, since the Act has expanded beyond the original monetary co-savings carrot, the Government should also consider renaming the Act to reflect the contents more accurately and better symbolically, perhaps as the Family Life Promotion Act.
Second, we should extend the equality of benefits to all men and women who are parents of Singaporean children as far as possible. This includes single unwed parents and also the non-citizen spouses of Singaporeans. This may not seem related to the birth rates of married citizen couples at first glance. But we are all social beings living in communities of shared interests in the first instance, not detached individuals with selfish interests. As we have seen in this House, Members from across the political spectrum have strongly empathised with single unwed mothers. There is something universal in this sentiment, as those of us who have or aspire to have children cannot bear to see other children suffer through no fault of their own. Extending equality to all parents of Singaporean children cultivates positive sentiment for having babies and raising children.
Extending eligibility for the CDA co-savings grant to the children of single unwed parents is a good first step. The next step is to consider extending the Baby Bonus Cash Gift to the same children, but perhaps to be deposited into the CDA so that the grant may be locked up for the sole benefit of the children.
It is also a good time to look at the housing needs of children of single unwed parents. As it is, this group of single parents is prevented from buying a new or resale HDB flat until they are 35 years old to go under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme. This creates an unacceptable inequality where permanent residents benefit more from HDB home ownership than a group of citizens. More importantly, the children are denied a stable physical and social environment to grow up in to focus on their schooling and playing.
The empathy for suffering Singaporean children and their parents also extends to non-citizen spouses who struggle with residential security due to the need to constantly renew visit passes. The Government should alleviate the stress and separation anxieties faced by the Singaporean spouses and children in such situations. I reiterate The Workers’ Party’s call for foreign spouses of Singaporean citizens to be given priority for citizenship naturalisation after five years on the Long Term Visit Pass Plus.
Third, socio-economic inequality matters, and so, therefore socio-economic equality matters. Singaporeans are economically rational and both short-term and long-term financial security affects their decisions to have more babies. The CDA First Step grant is a welcome move towards narrowing the gap in child development resources between low-income and high-income households. The Government should bring this policy move to its logical conclusion by automatically allocating to the CDA a standardised $10,000 for each child. It is then up to the parents to match the grant by topping up the CDA up to another $10,000 to earn higher interest and earmark savings for the child’s education and well-being. The Government could create incentives for parents to make the additional savings by making the savings eligible for income tax reliefs.
The reason we are calling for a standardised grant for each child instead of the stepwise $6,000, $12,000 and $18,000 formula for the CDA grants is because short-term financial security is a factor, especially for lower income and middle-income households. The stepwise formula is meant to be carrots to entice parents to have three babies or more, but ignores the fact that the immediate stress and cost of raising existing children would put off parents from deciding on the third baby. Giving a bigger grant for the existing children would alleviate the immediate stress, encourage a healthy family life and persuade parents that it is worth the while to have a third child and more.
Equalising the grants would also remove an artificial inequality within the family created by the policy. With the current policy, the third and fourth child could receive up to $12,000 more savings and grants compared to the first and second child, and the fifth child onwards could receive up to $24,000 more. This means that the older children would have less funds benefiting their education and well-being compared to the younger children.
Mdm Speaker, I am cautiously optimistic that we are at the crossroads of turning around our declining birth rates. I am cautiously optimistic that the Government has finally found the verve after three decades to stop blaming Singaporeans for not choosing to have babies and to start addressing the structural obstacles to enable Singaporeans to have more babies. As the lessons of three decades show, the Government cannot be reactive towards lower birth rates and should be proactive to aim for higher birth rates. And as the Government seeks to enable and empower Singaporeans to have more babies, please remember these two words as a key principle to guide pro-birth policy: equality matters. On this note, I support the Bill.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Madam, I stand in full support of this Bill, a Bill which starts a new chapter in our journey in parenthood and a Bill which brings about a fundamental change in our parenthood policies, a much needed fundamental change.
I also stand in full support of this Bill because it is not only about the dollars and cents but also about the hours, the minutes and the seconds, the precious time we spend with our children.
The amendments to section 3 bring about a stronger sense of inclusiveness. Single unwed mothers do not enjoy most of the benefits and support given to married mothers. You do not have to be a single parent to realise the difficulties they go through and they face in bringing up their children.
No matter what the circumstances are that led to them being single unwed mothers, we should still help and support them especially their child or children who like us are fellow Singaporeans.
As I mentioned during the COS debates, to be a truly inclusive society, we need to accord equal rights to our single unwed mothers and we should ensure that they do not feel alone in their journey. We must help and support them rather than penalise them. This is the right thing to do.
And so I am extremely delighted that the proposed amendment to section 3 seeks to expand the categories of children who may be eligible under the Child Development Co-Savings Scheme. Children other than children of married mothers will now qualify for the scheme. Together with MSF, we have fought hard for this. I have joined 16 other Members of Parliament, NCMPs and NMPs and AWARE who over the 12 years, spoke up for this.
The change in this policy is timely and I do hope that this does open the flood gate of help and support for single unwed mothers and the days of penalising them are history and they will finally get the same high level of support we give to our married mothers.
But this Bill does not just talk about mothers. It also emphases the important role fathers play. Research at the University of Bergen has shown that and I quote, "A sensitive and attentive father has a positive influence on a child's development, but only if he spends a considerable amount of time with his child during its first year". This research is part of a major project at The Norwegian Centre for Child Behavioural Development.
And the researcher's advice was simple and I quote again, "Try to get leave from work in order to spend as much time as possible with your child during its first year. But above all; make sure you spend high quality time with your child."
The amendments in this Bill seek to provide this by allowing employers to claim reimbursement from the Government for the extra week of paternity leave. Subsequent amendments to this Act, as the Minister has mentioned, where the second week of paternity leave will be legislated, will further strengthen this.
But I urge the Government to do more, to not just do more in providing financial grants which is important but also do more in helping to ensure that both fathers and mothers have the chance to spend more time with their children.
The Government is now writing this next and brand new chapter in this journey and we now need employers and fathers to join us.
Minister Tan had previously stated that in 2013, only 28% of fathers took up the Government-paid Paternity Leave; in 2014, the figure was 36%. These figures are clearly not encouraging.
And I sincerely hope that employers will not only grant the fathers their paternity leave but also actively encourage them to take it. My appeal for fathers, speaking up as a father, is that you will not regret spending time, quality time with your children in this amazing journey called parenthood. This is a journey that changes your life that makes you a better person and this is a journey your children need you to play an active role in.
This journey has changed my life. I have gone from being the biggest Linkin Park fan to now being the biggest Pororo Park fan. And quite embarrassingly, I can sing most of the songs you hear at Pororo Park in Marina Square. And I know that life has changed when I now subconsciously start singing Pororo songs.
Life has also changed from me from having tea parties with Prime Minister and the Ministers to now having weekly tea parties with my daughter. The tea parties are much less stressful now but those imaginary cups of tea have made it much easier for me to understand my daughter.
And lastly, life has certainly changed for me now as I am no longer the most stubborn person in my house. My daughter has learnt to say the word "no" or "no" and I never knew that someone could say the word "no" so many times in a day. I hope that she does not change and every guy that approaches her in the future, she will say "no".
Madam, I am often asked in the media I what special powers I wish I have and my reply has always been that I wish I have the power to turn back time.
As much as I try to live a life without regrets, there will always be regrets, always a wish that we could have done things better, and always a wish that we could have spent more time with our loved ones. And as recently published in a Straits Times article, "Regret is an incurable ache".
The time spent with our children is precious and should be cherished. The memories created will last forever and are priceless. Madam, we cannot buy time and we cannot turn back time. We cannot get back the hours, the minutes and the seconds lost. But we can every day treasure and value the time we have with our children and our loved ones.
Madam, this Bill is an important step forward for unwed mothers, for all fathers, mothers, children and employers. This is a journey we must all take together and the only regret one will have is that they did not participate in this journey.
Let me end with a less known quote about parenthood by Jill Smokler, and it reads: "Being a parent is dirty and scary and beautiful and hard and miraculous and exhausting and thankless and joyful and frustrating all at once. It is everything." Madam, I wholeheartedly support this Bill.
Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: Mdm Speaker, I thank Mr Louis Ng and Assoc Prof Daniel Goh in supporting this Bill. I would like to quickly address the point on TFR. We have all been concerned about our birth rates for quite some time.
There are many different reasons behind this. We are not the only country that is affected by it. I would like to assure the Members of this House that we are fully committed to exploring all possible ways. Many of the suggestions come from both sides of the House, and many members of the public out there. And many ideas, many different suggestions; some initiatives are carried out in other countries; some have worked better; some have not worked as well. Sometimes, it is also contextual and depending on the cultural context. Broadly, we do want to look at not just carrots and sticks, but really the overall environment is important. Ultimately, the last and final step must be taken by individuals and their families. But we can do is to provide as supportive an environment as possible.
As whether we are reactive or not, I am also hopeful. The rates have marginally increased. We hope that they can be sustained. The approach that we have taken really is not about being reactive. I think the reactive part happened quite sometime ago and we saw the trends turning into the direction which we were not quite happy with. And it is a series of measures. Each time, as we see the effect and if it did take effect, we continued to calibrate and we continued to improve. And this journey will continue.
I would like to assure Assoc Prof Daniel Goh that our target is indeed to try to move up to 1.4 and 1.5. In fact, in Deputy Prime Minister's opening remarks at the Parliamentary debate on Population White Paper on 4 February 2013, he said that, "In the short term, I hope our birth rate can increase to at least 1.4 or 1.5" which was our birth rate not so long ago around the late 1990s and the early 2000s.
This is something that we intend to do. I do call on all Members in this House who still have some way to go in terms of contributing to the data, well, please. I would imagine Mr Louis Ng and Ms Tin Pei Ling would help us on that front as well. It is something that we all have a part to play. In terms of environment and culture, it is not something that is just mandated by Government. It is something that is created by all of us as well. Societal attitudes really is a sum total of individual attitudes. We all have a part to play. So let us all chip in.
I am also very heartened to hear from both Mr Louis Ng and Assoc Prof Daniel Goh on their support of the extension of the Child Development Co-Saving Scheme to children of unwed parents. We know that this has been an issue that many have been championing for some time. It is something I personally felt very strongly about. I have noted that they would like the Government to extend to unwed mothers the same high level of support we give to married mothers on all fronts.
But before I address this point, let me reiterate the key principles underlying our decision for the review on support for unwed parents.
Firstly, the benefits extended must directly contribute to the child's development or caregiving needs. So that is one motivating reason. Secondly, the benefits must also support the unwed parent's efforts to provide for the child. Lastly, it is also important for us to remember that we do want to encourage families to have children within the confines of parenthood and within the confines of marriage. I think this is to the prevailing prevalent social norm and we all would agree that it is always best for children to grown up in that environment and that is something that we want to continue to encourage.
I think it is also important – we have said this several times, but I would like to repeat this here again – it is important to note that while there might be some differentiation for unwed parents, the children of these unwed parents do continue to be provided for on many fronts. It would be not correct to say that they are deprived of everything else. Yes, there are some differences. We have equalised some of it in my recent moves. But I want to emphasise that we do want to support the growth and development of all Singapore citizen children, regardless of the marital status of their parents. For example, the benefits include education, healthcare subsidies, Medisave grant for newborns, centre-based infant and childcare subsidies and foreign domestic worker levy concession. All working parents, regardless of their marital status, are also eligible for infant care leave, child care leave before the child turns seven, and extended childcare leave when the child is seven to 12 years old. And this has been the case for some time.
While we do what we can for the children, we do think that we must continue to try and encourage and support parenthood within the confines of marriage. This is the prevailing social norm. Many of us would agree that it would always be ideal if children can grow up within the confines of that. But having said, we do recognise that situations do happen and we want to support the children and we do want to support the families.
For vulnerable, low-income unwed parents who need more assistance, my Ministry and the National Council of Social Service will work with relevant voluntary welfare organisations and agencies to strengthen support for them and their families. Previously, many of us here as Members of Parliament, we will meet some of our residents who fall under difficult circumstances and unwed mums. And notwithstanding the fact that there were some differences in some of those various benefits, there is always wholehearted support in terms of providing for them when they do need that help.
Members will also remember that we are starting the KidSTART programme that I shared in Parliament last month. Through this programme, we will proactively identify low-income and vulnerable children aged six and below, and many of these would include children of unwed parents. That is a very substantive effort and I hope that this is something that would take off because I think it will have a significant for the long haul.
Mr Louis Ng has supported the amendment to allow employers and self-employed persons to claim reimbursement and loss of income respectively, for the second week of paternity leave. In fact, he would like employers to actively encourage their employees to take it.
I could not agree more. I think to the employers who have been doing so, you have the Government's support; we will fully fund this leave, as long as you grant it. More importantly, the support you give your staff to better manage their work-life responsibilities, will enhance their loyalty and productivity as well. Employers who go the extra mile will also attract talent, especially in today's tight labour market. The Government will do its part by continuing to support parents through leave schemes and promoting a pro-family workplace. This includes encouraging employers to adopt family-friendly practices such as providing flexible work arrangements.
On the point of active fatherhood, Mr Louis Ng shared passionately about his experiences, and many of us here who are parents would fully understand his sentiments. The amendments tabled today are in support of parenthood. He shared with us what Jill Smokler had to say, about this journey. My challenge to fellow fathers is: to find this out for ourselves. There are no short cuts and we should spend time and effort to be good fathers.
Active fatherhood is a personal commitment. I personally believe that it is not just about quality time, but it is also about quantity time. We must try to be present in our children’s lives as much as possible. We can do all we can in terms of schemes, in terms of measures to support. But many of us will also know that we do have choices to make. Oftentimes, we cite reasons – work and so on – but sometimes we are also distracted by our own preoccupations. The question is: are we prepared to put in the sacrifices, are we prepared to put in the time? Instead of spending time with our friends watching football somewhere else, spending time with children, and so on and so forth. And I think as we scroll down and actually study the kind of commitments that we are committed to and we find ourselves busy with, you will find that there are things there that we can actually choose to forgo in favour of time spent with family.
Mr Louis Ng hit the nail on the head when he shared that the time with our children is precious, and many of us whose children have grown up or continued to grow up, obviously, we do miss those days when they were toddlers and each stage as it moves on does not ever come back and these will become memories for life and it is important for us to be there to cherish it when those memories are created. So, it is important for us to be more active, to play a vigilant role. But we can also take heart that what we have done, when we have done what we can to expose our children to the right values while there is no guarantee in terms of outcomes but at least we have given it our best shot and it is a continuing lifelong journey that we journey with our children.
Mdm Speaker, the Government, together with the community and the individual, must continue to build strong families because, ultimately, as we look at building our nation, we talk about looking forward to SG100, there are many, many different things that we need to do. But we all know that the building blocks of any nation really lies with the individuals and the families and if we have strong families, it gives us a reason to be anchored here, it gives us a reason to build a better future. This is not just for ourselves but it is really very much for our families, for our children, and for their children in turn. And we will continue as much as we can to create a pro-family environment for families, and to also support the more vulnerable in our society. Mdm Speaker, I beg to move.