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THE traditional family with a stay-at-home mum is a thing of the past, Prime Minister John Howard said when promising the Government would focus on ways to help Australians balance work and family.
The Government had not ruled out paid maternity leave but it would not necessarily solve Australia's falling birthrate, he said at a conference in Adelaide.
"We need to have increasingly more flexible workplace arrangements," Mr Howard said.
"We are examining options to encourage employers to implement family-friendly arrangements without too much regulation."
The Government's changes to the tax system led to more disposable income for couples with children and single parents than for people without children, which he said was a positive result.
The Government intended to push ahead with plans to exempt small businesses from unfair dismissal laws to improve job opportunities for women.
Mr Howard also wants schools to offer more flexible hours to reflect the demands of modern families and offer afterhours child care.
"We have school hours that were fashioned at a time when the overwhelming norm was one income to support a family," he said.
The new average Australian family was a policeman and a part-time sales assitant - a full-time and a part-time worker.
This was more common than one breadwinner or two highly paid professionals earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.