National Foundation for Australian Women
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Social Policy and Women » Paid Parental Leave

Paid Parental Leave

LET’S GET PAID PARENTAL LEAVE HAPPENING IN JANUARY 2011

 

An Open Letter to Senators and MPs

 

Sign on to the Open Letter, then send a copy with your full name and address to your local Member and all the Senators in your State or Territory. We will present a copy of the Open Letter with all signatures as a petition to Party leaders in Canberra during the Budget Sittings.

BACKGROUND

Four years ago, a broad coalition of interest groups persuaded the then Labor Opposition to promise that if elected to Government Labor would ask the Productivity Commission to investigate options for a national paid maternity leave scheme, and report back to Government. See www.nfaw.org

 

Within a few weeks of election, that promise was kept. The members of the coalition, and a diverse range of interested groups and individuals made submissions to the Commission.  Of particular significance, expert evidence was provided on early childhood and infant brain development, the economic  benefits of extended breast feeding were demonstrated, unions and women’s groups made proposals and business groups and academics shared their ideas for possible ways of financing paid maternity leave.  The process was both inclusive and comprehensive.

 

The Commission Report recommended a basic scheme of Paid Parental Leave (PPL) which provided leave for both partners and included detailed costings.  It also costed some alternatives. www.pc.gov.au

 

In due course, the Government accepted most of the Commission’s recommendations.

 

In the May 2009 budget, the Government committed to paid parental leave, based on the Commission’s recommendations.

 

The Government undertook to review the Scheme after two years, and to consider introducing then the explicit paid leave for fathers, and the superannuation guarantee payment.

 

Further consultations were then  held by a PPL group in Minister Macklin’s Department with employers, unions and community groups in the second half of 2009. The draft Bill is complex, in that it must be consistent with industrial relations law, taxation law, and social security law. Legislation drafting is currently being finalised.

 

Debate will occur in the Parliament in May and June, but now PPL faces the prospect of defeat because of the numbers in the Senate.

 

PPL is not the perfect scheme, but it provides a well considered policy start for today which can be built upon in the future. Pie in the sky sounds terrific in theory, but a Paid Parental Leave Scheme on the plate in January 2011 and available to support Australian women sounds much better.

 

If the scheme is defeated because of promises of something better in future years, there will not be a basic foundation scheme operating for 148,000 new parents in 2011.  This will be a regressive situation for Australia, and a disaster for those families who took the imminent availability of the scheme into consideration when planning for their futures.

 

This can only be bad for families.

 

The Productivity Commission expected its scheme to increase the average length of leave taken by employed women after childbirth by around ten weeks. This would see mothers be able to care exclusively for their newborn child for around six months.

This means more time for families at home together.

 

The Greens have a draft Bill extending the scheme to six months at the minimum wage, continuing superannuation payments to the person on leave, and offering business incentives to top up the payments to match their own respective schemes.

 

The Liberal Party has outlined a scheme without a great deal of published detail at this time which would provide 26 weeks leave at income replacement levels up to $150.000.00 p.a., or the Federal Minimum wage, whichever is the greater, the full superannuation guarantee, and two weeks paternity paid leave, with the payment made through the Family Assistance Office. The proposed Liberal scheme would need a building block similar to the Government proposal for low income earners.

 

The cost per annum of the Liberal scheme is in the order of $2,700 million p.a., the bulk to come from an employer levy.

 

The Liberal party Leader, Mr Tony Abbott MP, and the Green’s spokeswoman, Senator Sarah Hanson Young, have proposed amending the Government Bill to extend the period to 26 weeks.

 

The Productivity Commission Report clarifies that this would double the cost per annum of the current 18 weeks proposal.

 

The Government has said it will not agree to  amendments providing a doubling of costs in the 2010-211 Budget.

 

Fresh changes (amendments) to the already complex legislation could, in any case, mean that no scheme would be ready to implement in January 2011.

 

The reality is this: if the Government’s scheme is blocked in the Senate, Australia will

be left without the basic building block of a paid parental leave. We must not allow that  to happen. The choice here is between the Government’s scheme and no PPL at all in 2011.

 

Please sign onto the attached Open Letter.

 

Please send a similar letter personally to your Member and Senators.

 

Marie Coleman PSM
Chair, NFAW Social Policy Committee
16 March 2010

 

Members and Senators

The Parliament of Australia

Canberra. ACT.

 


Please Pass the Government Legislation to Establish a National Paid Parental Leave Scheme which can commence in January 2011. We would then value work to later improve and extend the scheme. .

 

Signed:

Name/Organisation          Postal Address    e-mail contact

 

 Attachment:

 

The Government’s Scheme

·           The Rudd Government has committed $731 million over five years to Australia’s first comprehensive paid parental leave scheme from 1 January 2011.

·           The scheme will cost approximately $260 million per annum and will be available to approximately 148,000 eligible new parents per year.

·           The scheme will provide the primary carer with 18 weeks post-natal leave, paid at the adult federal minimum wage (currently $543.78 per week).

·           Non-working mothers, subject to the relevant means test, will continue to receive the $5000 Baby Bonus and related family payments.

·           Payment would be made through Employers, unless impossible, when the Family  Assistance Office would make payments, Why Is The Paid Parental Leave Scheme Important?

·           Australia is one of only two OECD countries, along with the USA, which does not have a comprehensive national paid parental leave scheme

·           Under the current voluntary system, parental leave tends to be available only to workers in higher paying jobs.  PPL is more available in some industries than in others.  The industries with the lowest levels of access to PPL are award

·           reliant, female dominated, low skilled and highly casualised

·           Paid Parental Leave will lead to: Improved maternal and child health outcomes, as mothers will be able to spend more time at home recovering after the birth and parents more time nurturing their infants. Higher female labour force participation, resulting in higher lifetime earnings and benefits to employers through greater access to skilled employees

 

 

 

Click here for a copy of the Open Letter in Word Format

 

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