When I introduced the bill for Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme I wanted the government’s paid parental leave available to mothers and fathers in addition to existing employer-funded schemes, either at the same time or consecutively. Our paid parental leave scheme has been designed to complement and enhance the existing family-friendly arrangements that many employers already offer.
It’s not fraud to want the best start in life for your baby. It’s not rorting the system to have government and employers work together to provide Australian working mothers with a decent amount of paid leave after the birth of their child, so that mothers and babies can have more time together.
And yet Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey are currently trying to tell Australian mothers they’ve been “double dipping” or rorting their paid parental leave entitlements.
I fought alongside many other women – and some brave men – for Australian women to have a national paid parental leave scheme for more than a decade. Before Labor introduced Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme, Australia was one of just two OECD countries without a comprehensive paid parental leave scheme.
It was a hard fight, and we can’t afford to move backwards.
Labor designed our scheme so that government funded parental leave would be taken alongside leave funded by employers. This means mothers or father can take a longer period off work to spend with their new born baby.
Our scheme was based on sound evidence – the Productivity Commission report on paid parental leave in 2009 noted there are compelling health and welfare benefits for mothers and babies from a period of postnatal absence from work of around six months.
Our scheme offered working women 18 weeks of paid leave, or more than four months, which together with employer contributions would take many women close to that six month mark.
Most mothers are cobbling together their workplace paid parental leave, the government’s paid parental leave and several weeks of their own annual or personal leave – all to maximise the time they have with their newborn babies.
Our scheme shares the load between parents, government and employers.
I remember visiting Sydney’s Westmead Hospital with then-prime minister Julia Gillard on new year’s day, 2011. It was the first day the paid parental leave scheme came into operation. The women we met were rightly overjoyed to be new mothers, and anticipating the time ahead of them knowing they would be provided with some financial security.
Four years later, an independent expert panel has found Labor’s paid parental leave scheme has been achieving exactly what we hoped it would do – both improving the health of mothers and babies, and lifting female workforce participation.
Instead of celebrating this achievement, Tony Abbott, the minister for women, is making cuts to paid parental leave that will leave around 80,000 Australian mothers worse off.
These mothers have been condemned for “double dipping” when really they are doing exactly what they should be doing – spending more time with their babies. Labor introduced paid parental leave. We will fight to keep it safe from Tony Abbott.