The federal government has announced a plan to slowly increase paid parental leave across Australia to 26 weeks (approximately 6 months for the non-maths girlies out there). Currently, parents of newborns are only entitled to 18 weeks of paid maternity leave.
In an Instagram upload this morning, PM Anthony Albanese flagged some of the outcomes he hoped the new paid parental leave policy will bring about.
View this post on Instagram
“I’ll be announcing this in a speech later today, but I wanted to share it with you here first,” wrote the PM in a format clearly inspired by the structure of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews‘ single line paragraph social media posts.
“This is the biggest boost to Paid Parental Leave since it was introduced.
“Six months of paid time off – and the flexibility to choose how to split it between parents.
“It’ll mean more dads can take time off work, so caring responsibilities can be shared more equally.
“And it’ll mean more opportunity for mums, boosting participation across the economy.
“It’s a modern policy for modern families and I’m so proud we’re getting it done.”
Albanese formally announced the new policy at the NSW state Labor conference on Saturday, affirming that “one of the best ways to boost productivity and participation across our economy is to provide more choice and more support for families and more opportunity for women,” as per Guardian Australia.
Albanese also hinted that the plan will improve on the current “use it or lose it system” where some of the paid leave weeks can only be taken by the secondary carer.
In theory, this would encourage secondary caregivers (commonly the bloke in a hetero relationship but not always) to spend more time caring for their child during its first months of life.
“This will benefit mums, it will benefit dads, it’s good for children and it will be a huge boost to the economy,” said Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth.
“We know that treating parenting as an equal partnership helps to improve gender equality.”
A downside to the new policy is it’s still a little while off.
We’ll have to wait until July 2024 to cop our first extra two weeks. Each year from then on will add another two years to the tally until 2026. Bugger!
Now for some historical titbits for your next trivia night.
Paid parental leave was first introduced in Australia in 2011 by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd alongside then-Minister for Employment Julia Gillard.
Before 2011, Australia was one of only two countries in the OECD without a paid parental leave program. How embarrassing!
Or, as Kath Day-Knight would say, “bloody Howard!”
