Coalition Parental leave Scheme best for families

31-May-2010

As both Government and Coalition proposals for paid parental leave continue to be debated in Parliament this week, Member for Farrer Sussan Ley urged Members to support the Coalition’s far superior scheme.

“Coalition proposals will meet the needs of families, Labor’s will not” Ms Ley said.

“Not only is our scheme is good for mothers and families, it will also boost Australia’s productivity in the long term as the baby boomers retire and there are less workers take their place.

“Our fertility rate of between 1.7 And 1.8 births per woman is much too low and we need to do all we can to encourage more babies. For many families, it is just not possible for the mother to take the time off work to have children and the decision to have a family is being delayed, sometimes for so long, those children never happen, even when they are very much desired” Ms Ley said.

The Coalition’s scheme will allow working mothers to take 6 months at full pay, fully funded and including superannuation payments.

The family can continue to pay their mortgage, balance their budget and take vital time to bond with their baby. Small business owners, independent contractors and farmers will all be eligible under the Coalition’s scheme as well as wage earners.

The Baby Bonus and family tax benefits continue to be options for mums who are not in the workforce at the time their baby is born.

Ms Ley also made special mention of women who, for whatever reason have delayed childbirth until it becomes almost impossible, saying one of the harshest things we can do as women is to judge other women’s’ child bearing choices and saying that society should continue to do all it can to support older mothers’ access to IVF.

Responding to criticism that the Coalition should not expect big business to pay for its scheme, Ms Ley said that in an ideal world the scheme would be government funded but the most important thing was for a properly funded parental leave scheme to be operational as soon as possible.

“We would prefer that business did not pay, but the Government debt at 30 June 2010 is $58 billion and we have undertaken to fix the budget bottom line before undertaking significant spending” Ms Ley said.

Noting that the Government’s scheme does not include Superannuation and is paid at the minimum wage, Ms Ley said she doubted it would achieve its objectives of helping families manage children and the workforce.

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