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1. 50% of mothers to lose government paid parental leave entitlements.
There has been a fierce reaction after the Treasurer, Joe Hockey, announced yesterday that 80,000 new mothers will lose some or all of their government parental leave payments in a move which will see “double dipping” parental leave payments stopped in the next budget.
The Treasurer announced that women who access funds from both the government scheme – which provides 18 weeks of leave at the minimum wage to primary care givers earning $150,000 a year or less – and from their employer will now be forced to choose or to take a part payment.
Sydney University professor of employment relations Marian Baird told Fairfax Media the proposed changes were “the mother of all insults.”
“To now say that mothers are double dipping is just rude and cruel – it’s an outrageous attack on mothers because that was the plan of the scheme.” She told Fairfax Media.
Advocacy group The Parenthood described the move as a “slap in the face.”
It is estimated that about 45,000 women a year – will have access only to a partial government payment because they have some employer entitlements, which are less than the government scheme.
34,000 women a year are estimated to lose the government support entirely, as their workplace scheme is more than the government scheme.
Top Comments
I'm not 100% on the details, but if parental payments are capped, what incentive is there for businesses to offer their staff paid leave?
Surely they'll just say "if the govt will only allow you x many weeks, there's no point in us offering you anything"
Also, my employer gave me 2 months paid leave (balance unpaid), but if I didn't come back & work for at least 6 months, I'd have to pay them the 2 months "bonus" back. I'm sure many other women have similar contracts. How's that going to work out Mr H?
Would love to see an article on how the budget affects low to middle income earners without kids - we make up a significant part of the population too so would be nice to see an article explaining how it affects us.