Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek has sledged the Coalition and One Nation for their history of opposition to paid parental leave, as the government prepares to extend benefits to new parents from next week.
“We always look for ways of doing more to support families when we can. What I’d say is that there is a risk to paid parental leave when you look at the way the Liberals, the Nationals, and One Nation have responded to paid parental leave over the years,” Plibersek told a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra.
“You’ll recall Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison calling mothers rorters and double dippers. You’ll recall Tim Wilson, the current shadow treasurer, saying that it’s not his choice that women have babies, it’s genetic, and you’ll recall that Pauline Hanson, since 2017 has been saying that paid parental leave is a rort,” Plibersek said.
“She said in 2017 that women will just get pregnant to get the money. She said a couple of weeks ago that the women have the equipment, so if they take time off to have a baby, that’s their business, and she said, as recently as the Press Club, recently, that paid parental leave is going to send small businesses broke,” she said, arguing it was Labor’s responsibility to protect the benefit from “conservative parties”.
Paid parental leave is offered to all parents and paid for by the taxpayer. The policy offers 24 weeks of paid leave at the minimum wage of $948.10 per week. On July 1, the period will extend to 26 weeks, and eligibility criteria will be expanded.
Plibersek did not directly answer a question over whether the government would be willing to expand the program to allow small businesses to offer more competitive paid parental leave offerings when compared to bigger businesses.
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