In his maiden parliamentary speech in 1970, former Labor Australian Prime Minister
the Hon. Paul Keating, castigated the then conservative government for what he saw as
a set of economic policies that were forcing women out of their “proper” place in the
home to take up work. He abhorred the fact that “husbands have been forced to send
their wives to work in order to provide the necessaries of life” (Keating, 1970). Keating
(1970) added that: