Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Nick Xenophon & Derryn Hinch: the men on the frontline of PPL policy.
The government is looking at boosting paid parental leave from 18 to 20 weeks. The news was reported yesterday by News Corp’s National Political Editor on Sunday, Samantha Maiden, and represents a potential breakthrough in the negotiations between the government and the cross bench.
Last month the government failed in its bid to stop women from “double-dipping” because Senator Derryn Hinch and three Nick Xenophon Team senators blocked the legislation.
Those four cross-benchers are reportedly pushing for the increase which Social Services minister Christian Porter has confirmed is under consideration.
So is it a win?
For the government it would reduce its savings from $1.2billion to between $600 million and $750 million which Porter has flagged as a palatable compromise.
Samantha Maiden reports that 60% of families will be either better off or unaffected under the new scheme, compared with 47% of families under the government’s policy that was blocked in the senate.
Labor’s Jenny Macklin, the opposition’s families spokesperson, is unimpressed with the new deal. She said 70,000 mums with a median income of $62,000 would be on average $5,600 worse off and 4,000 new mums would lose access to the government scheme completely and be more than $12,000 worse off.
The Executive Director of The Parenthood, Jo Briskey, is circumspect about pitting families against each other.
“The new deal gives some new parents an additional two weeks of time but does so by stripping that same amount of time or more from 72,000 other new parents,” she says. “We know we have one of the worst paid parental leave systems in the world, but giving two more weeks to some new parents by making others forgo that same time or more is by no means an improvement.”
Paid parental leave policy has been in flux in Australia for four years. In 2013 Tony Abbott became Prime Minister, with his signature policy being his “Rolls Royce” PPL scheme, under which women would be entitled to 26 weeks at their wage. In February of 2015, with his leadership under siege, Abbott relented to pressure within his party and dumped the policy. Four months later, the-then Treasurer Joe Hockey shocked Australians with his plan to slash entitlements to mums, who were cast as rorters and fraudsters, for accessing paid leave from the government and their employer as intended under the 18-week scheme.
Despite how badly Hockey’s “diabolical” and baseless policy iteration was received, Malcolm Turnbull maintained a commitment to it when he became Prime Minister.
(Such was the hostility within the government towards these double dipping mums, a Freedom of Information request for official correspondence referring to them was rejected because it “would have taken 550 pages to list all the invective”, according to News.com.au)
From the high of Abbott’s generous promise to the low of Joe Hockey’s galling scheme, an increase from 18 weeks to 20 weeks in paid leave falls somewhere in the middle: it is not a substantial progression, but nor is it as regressive as it could have been.
But The Parenthood is keen to hold Nick Xenophon and his team to account. “Make no mistake – this is a broken promise from the Nick Xenophon Team who clearly agreed before the election to “vote to protect the current Paid Parental Leave system and oppose any diminution of the current system,” Briskey says. “Whichever way you look at it, many Australian parents voted for Mr Xenophon’s Team with the understanding that they wouldn’t cut PPL.”
It is true. It is also, sadly, true that the understanding upon which Australians have voted in regards to paid parental leave for the past five years has borne barely any resemblance to the policy they are likely to receive. Will this be different?
