How we think about, and value, our work and our caring arrangements needs a major shake up, according to a new Senate committee report.
The committee on work and care had been tasked with taking a wide-ranging look at our current systems and the impact they have on people who are caring for loved ones, or others, at the same time as holding down a job.
In its final report, it made 33 recommendations about ways to improve peoples' lives and provide more support in a range of areas from multicultural carer services to backing pay rises for other care industries.
Here are four of the other changes they suggested.
Four-day work-week trial
It's a little way down the recommendation list but the committee thinks the government should give its own four-day work-week trial a go.
While there's already a number of private businesses who are or have trialled four-day weeks, the fact that the committee — which is made up of Greens, government and Coalition MPs — wants the federal government to try it is a pretty big step.
Successfully implementing it across the public service, for example, would give quite a bit of weight behind what's so-far been done at a small-scale level.
The committee suggested the government use the 100:80:100 model:
"Whereby employees retain 100 per cent of the salary while reducing their hours to 80 per cent while maintaining 100 per cent productivity," it said.
It also recommended getting a university on board to measure the impact of the trial and see what impact it had on people's wellbeing and whether it changed the split of unpaid care between men and women.
The trial was one of a few recommendations aimed at shaking up the conventional idea of work.
The committee also recommended getting the Fair Work Commission to review the idea of a 38-hour work week and whether stronger penalties are needed for businesses to make their staff work long hours.
Another suggestion was for the government to consider adding in to law the "right to disconnect" and stop employers from contact with workers outside of hours, except in an emergency.
A year of paid parental leave
When it came to changing the landscape for carers, there were a stack of recommendations by the committee, including to further boost the amount of leave offered to parents.
This week, the government passed its legislation to change the current Paid Parental Leave scheme and plans to increase the weeks on offer to 26 by July 2026.
But the report urged the government to go even more ambitious than that, calling for it to:
"Fund and implement a pathway to reach international best practice of 52 weeks."
It also said it should make sure the full period of leave could be used by sole parents and superannuation was paid on all Paid Parental Leave payments too.
The report also echoed forthcoming recommendations from a different taskforce to axe the child care subsidy activity test and reverse a policy that shifts single parents off parenting payments and onto the lower JobSeeker payment when their child turns eight.
And on the ParentsNext program, it said the government should ditch all compulsory elements and participation requirements.
Increase carers pay
The committee didn't hold back in its calls for increases to a whole bunch of welfare payments.
One of the recommendations was for the government to argue the case for award wage increases for all care sectors.
"Including early childhood education, disability care and aged care, and all sectors covered by the relevant childcare and Social, Community Home Care and Disability Services Industry (SCHADS) Awards," it said.
The report noted that appropriate wages were crucial to retaining staff in care industries.
For people who don't work in the industries but provide care to loved ones, the report also recommended a review of the Carers Payment and Carers Allowance to:
"Acknowledging the significant social and economic contribution that carers make."
Program for young carers
During the committee's inquiry, it heard the number of young carers was significantly under-identified and there was a need for greater support for people in their situation.
As a result, the final report recommends developing a new mental health support program specifically for carers who are 25 years old or younger.
It said the program should look at the unique impacts of caring on younger people and how to raise awareness in schools and other education settings of the burdens faced by young carers and how people can support them.
How likely are these changes?
Even though there was no dissenting reports — people saying they disagreed with the recommendations by the committee — it doesn't mean these recommendations are a sure thing.
In additional comments, both government and Coalition MPs noted that while they supported the recommendations in principle, the economic reality of implementing all of them was pretty much impossible.
As government members Deborah O'Neill, Jana Stewart and Linda White said: "The fiscal reality necessarily imposes constraints on social policy."
But while some of the more ambitious recommendations may not become policy any time soon, a number of other ones do back up calls from other committees or taskforces, and add to the weight of evidence for changing the system.
