Why I don't want a tax cut

Tax is boring. You could say that tax is to blogging as Weetbix is to cuisine. Still, it's an important matter, especially for women. Bear with me.

We've heard a great many arguments for tax cuts. Increasing petrol and food costs are placing pressure on families, and it's easier for politicians to put more cash in our pockets through cutting taxes than by raising wages.

There have been fewer arguments raised against tax cuts. The most important of these is surely the underfunding of our public services and infrastructure. Sure, everyone wants more take-home pay; but we also want an assurance that, if we need medical treatment, an adequate health system will be there to provide it. The $16 per week tax cut my family can expect will buy us very little, but combined with everyone else's cut it represents a large loss from the public purse. Beneficiaries, who most need extra money, get nothing from tax cuts – and increasing redundancies means more beneficiaries.

Tax and public spending have different consequences for women and men. The state isn't always a girl's best friend – it's easy to point to countries with repressive policies in areas like reproductive rights and divorce laws – but, by and large, states offer women protections and opportunities we would otherwise lack.

The state is a large employer of women: nurses, teachers and social workers are predominantly female. In the public sector, women have at least a nominal claim to pay parity. The large majority of solo parents are women, and a great number of these rely on tax-funded benefits to survive. As mothers and caregivers, women do most of the interacting with state institutions that keeps our families and society ticking. We liaise with schools, sit in Accident and Emergency waiting rooms with our kids, help run kindergartens and so on.

Women have a large stake in maintaining public institutions and the tax take which funds them. Calling for tax cuts may prove to be the equivalent of biting the hand that feeds.