ing on Defence and the shrinking surplus in our National budget.
             Other Ministers are pushing their own alternatives. This in itself is a great way to solve a problem, by discussing all the possible alternatives. They do need to reach a decision at some stage and while the Iraq issue remains current the incentive to resolve this issue appears as a minor priority.
             The real question is will this reform actually achieve an increase in the birthrate. As it appears to be the reason behind this reform in the first place, this is an important result. Possibly there are other countries that have introduced such reforms and we could gauge the possible success of this reform in our country against the results in these countries. Pru Goward seems confident there will be positive outcomes from this reform. I wonder if this will actually make women want to leave careers to become mothers. Trends show a decline in birthrates and I do not believe it is simply a question of providing paid maternity leave. I believe there are other reasons why women no longer have families. The role of women has significantly changed and children or even relationships are not the priority they used to be in a woman's life.
             STRESSED WIFES CLUB BALANCED DESPITE JESSIE'S LORE
             This article contains three main points;
             1. Contrary to the studies carried out by the famous American Jessie Bernard in 1972, Dr. de Vaus, Senior Research Advisor at the Australian Institute of Family Studies has released his findings that married men and women had very similar and low rates of mental health problems. It shows a 13 % health problem rate for both married men and women. The difference is the kind of mental health experienced by women is depression and mood disorders, while men experience alcohol and drug disorders.
             2. On reason suggested for the current positive results is the change in marriage over the past 30 years. Women participation in the work force h...