Parental leave needs to be six months to pass
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday March 16, 2010
KEVIN RUDD will be forced to extend his paid parental leave scheme to six months if he wants it to have guaranteed passage through the Senate, a move that would cause the scheme to increase in cost by $400 million a year.The Greens and the Liberals sounded the warning yesterday as it emerged there would only be about four Senate sitting weeks before spring, by when an election is due.With the Senate already backlogged and going slow with key legislation, there is no guarantee it will pass the paid parental leave legislation unless the government makes it more generous."It's going to be quite difficult, depending on an election timetable, to get it passed this year," the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said yesterday."If Labor were fair dinkum about paid parental leave, they'd have their scheme ready to go."The legislation for the government's 18-week taxpayer funded scheme is still being drafted and is not expected to be introduced into Parliament until after the budget in late May.After that, the Senate sits for only two weeks in June and for two weeks in August.The Coalition has promised a rival scheme that would provide six-months' leave at full pay, funded by a $2.7 billion tax slug on business.Labor's scheme would pay all carers the minimum weekly wage of $544. The Productivity Commission estimates the annual cost to taxpayers of a six-month scheme at minium wage would be about $650 million, almost $400 million more than the current estimated cost of $260 million for a four-month scheme.Mr Abbott said the Coalition would amend the government's scheme to reflect its own policy.The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young laid out her party's minium conditions yesterday. These included extending the scheme to six months at the minimum wage, continuing superannuation payments to the person on leave, and offering business incentives to top up the payments to match their own respective schemes.Senator Hanson-Young also said the Greens would not be pressured by a tight sitting schedule. "We need to have sufficient time on the agenda to deal with paid parental leave properly, not just ramming through the government's plan as the only possible option," she said.The government is confident that if it resists making changes, the Senate parties will back down, rather than risk voter ire and ending up with no scheme at all. Labor's scheme is due to begin on January 1. Despite saying last week his scheme would be up and running by about 2013, Mr Abbott hinted yesterday it could be in operation by Christmas, should there be a spring election. "Our scheme would start as soon as possible after the election," he saidDetails of the opposition's scheme remain sketchy. When he announced it, Mr Abbott said the 1.7 per cent company tax increase would apply to companies with taxable income of more than $5 million a year, which is about 3500 companies. Then he said it would apply apply to companies that pay more than $5 million a year in company tax, which is about 900 companies.An Essential Media poll released yesterday found 40 per cent of voters backed the government's scheme and 24 per cent backed Mr Abbott's. Another 27 per cent liked neither.
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald