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Anthony Albanese drops big hint he will radically change Australia’s paid parental leave scheme in the budget later this month
- PM has hinted that he could make a major change to the parental leave arrangement
- Anthony Albanese considers a proposal to tackle gender equality
- He can increase paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks in the federal budget
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Paid parental leave would be increased from 18 to 26 weeks under a major policy proposal to be discussed before the federal budget.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is considering the proposal ahead of the October 26 budget, which would aim to address gender equality and help families with the cost of living.
Mr Albanese told reporters he would have more to say on the matter, but that helping women into the labor market was ‘low hanging fruit’ to improve the economy.
“We need to maximize women’s economic participation for the sake of the family budget, but also for the sake of our national economy,” he said.
The Prime Minister said Australia was “down to earth” compared to other advanced democracies when it came to paid parental leave.
“We will make announcements as we make them. But we said that consistently paid parental leave is something that Labor has been advocating. It’s something we’ve said we’d like to do more of,” he said.
Anthony Albanese (above) said tackling gender equality in the workforce was ‘low hanging fruit’ to improve the economy as he suggests he can extend the length of paid parental leave
New reforms could mean parents paying an extra eight weeks of parental leave (above, default image of a young mother) in an effort to allow more women to stay in work
“One of the things we need to do with paid parental leave, just as we need to do with childcare, is to increase women’s participation in the labor force, keep them in work, increase business productivity and improve their living standards.”
Mr Albanian said having families is good for the economy as well as for individuals.
“And so Labor will always do what we can to provide more support, but I will say more about that in the near future,” he said.
As it stands, eligible working parents who are the primary caregiver of a newborn can receive 18 weeks of parental leave at the national minimum wage.
Secondary informal carers such as fathers or partners can be paid for a maximum of two weeks.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has called on the Albanian government to initially increase paid parental leave to 26 weeks, before extending it to 52 weeks in 2030.