My name is Andrew Gillard.
I come from Australia.
I'm originally from Melbourne.
And I'm Sara Gillard, and I'm from the south of Sweden,
and i am married to Andrew.
We have three children - Oliver, Ellen and Greta.
The first two were born in Australia,
and then Greta was born here in Sweden.
We call them Swaussies - Swedish Australians,
and they're very much a mix of the two cultures.
For us it was a great experience,
but I did obviously have to do it all alone.
since Andrew was at work.
When Oliver was born I was essentially allowed
allowed one week of unpaid leave,
which i took, obviously,
but i would have absolutely loved to take off time.
At that stage I didn't really understand,
being that it was our first child,
that that was an option for me.
I think growing up in Australia you almost don't
think of that as a possibility.
Even though we wanted to be very equal in parenting,
there was always a question of finance.
Sara had to stay at home,
and then for us to have enough money
to support the household
I basically had to work.
It was difficult for me to be
spending so much time away from my children.
That kind of contact, that if you child
falls over and scrapes his knee,
who is he going to call? To his mother.
So for me it was kind of difficult to not have that
contact with our children.
So we moved here because it was a good time
in Oliver's life - he started prep here,
and then after tow years we got pregnant with Greta.
and we just knew that there was a new experience
in doing the one child in this whole system.
Well here in Sweden parental leave is a right,
it's a law, so any employer cannot refuse you.
if you ask for parental leave.
and that's the thing about this system,
it's basically the parents who decide who
is going to be the one to stay at home.
So you get a lot of dads who are pushing prams around.
A Latte Pappa is basically a dad who is going out
and taking his kid for a walk and stops in
and meets the other dads and has a coffee.
And you probably wouldn't see the same thing
happening in Australia,
where you've got 4 or 5 guys, all around 30,
pushing a pram going in to a cafe
and having a latte.
So it's probably something that you wouldn't see.
So it would probably look quite strange if you
were doing that somewhere in suburban Melbourne.
But I like to think that maybe this is starting to change.
My name is Damian Arnup
and this is my daughter, Ruby Jean.
Yeah, I'm a stay at home dad.
My wife has the capacity to earn a lot more than I can
in her career,
and I was changing jobs at the time,
going from a hopsitality background and finishing up
and starting a different job,
so it just made sense that we could do it this way.
What are we watching?
Again?
Speaking to some people,
and they're like, oh, it's Daddy day today!
And i think, it's Daddy Day seven days a week.
Oh, what's this?
Government subsidies and parental leave
being able to have that time with your family
and with your children is absolutely crucial.
as to the role of... yes, puppy?
- I did this. - Okay, get some stickers.
It's absolutely crucial to who has the role
of being at home with the kids
and who is off to earn the money,
because childcare is just so expensive.
What shapes do you want?
Um, a loveheart!
A loveheart? I don't think so...
Try a square or a circle.
When you look at female workforce participation rates
around the world,
Australia is doing better than the OECD average,
but bear in mind that that includes
Italy, Greece and Spain.
But we're doing less well than many other countries
that we often compare ourselves to.
So for example we often compare ourselves to Canada,
it's a country that Australia is very similar to
in many ways,
and yet they have far more women working.
If Australia addresses female workforce participation
there are a number of benefits.
One of them is economic - it means that
the economy will be larger, there'll be more money
to pay for the things we'd like to do.
And if we see more women participating
in the workforce for longer,
that, over the long run, changes social attitudes.
It's more likely to see familes that shift towards
a more equitable sharing of the childcare load,
more likely to see a number of stereotypes
around what women do as opposed to men break down,
and the chances are that it would have
a substantial cultural impact and I'd like to think
that that would be a better country.
I definitely think that the Swedish system
would benefit families here in Australia.
Because everyone's situation is different.
That sort of flexibility to be able to allow
both the parents to be involved like that
would be fantastic.
It's a very short part of your life.
Andi think if you don't get yto be involved
then you're really missing out.
You know, a baby taking their first steps and first words,
and if you're not part of that then somebody else is,
and that's just not fair.
i think it was more difficult to raise kids in Australia.
On a financial level, I would say.
I can't say that Australian dads are not active
in their kids' life, they are.
But they just don't have the time,
or they are not given the time
to be active even though they might want to.
Well, the tax system in Sweden, as we all know
around the world, we pay quite a high tax.
But it also pays for all of these things.
It's free schooling, it's free dental,
it's free healthcare,
and ever parent gets 480 -
or every family gets 480 days for each child.
I suppose people do take advantage of it.
But then it's there to be taken advantage of.
so that really the end result is
the winner is the child.