BILL SHORTEN MP
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG

 JENNY MACKLIN MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FAMILIES & PAYMENTS
MEMBER FOR JAGAJAGA

SENATOR CLAIRE MOORE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND

LABOR WILL PROTECT PAID PARENTAL LEAVE

A Shorten Labor Government will put people first by reversing Malcolm Turnbull’s unfair cuts to paid parental leave. 

Under Labor’s policy, each year 80,000 families with new babies will be as much as $11,800 better off than they would be under the Liberals. 

By contrast, if Malcolm Turnbull is re-elected, new mums will be forced to choose between returning to work early and missing out on time with their newborn, or staying at home and having their living standards drastically reduced. 

Exactly one year ago – on Mother’s Day – the Liberal Government announced huge cuts to Labor’s paid parental leave scheme. Senior Liberal Ministers disgracefully labelled hardworking mothers double-dippers, rorters and fraudsters. 

This week, Malcolm Turnbull locked in cuts to paid parental leave in his Budget. These cuts are scheduled to begin after the election. 

If Labor is elected, we will immediately end the Liberals’ war on working mums. We will protect their paid parental leave entitlements and their living standards. 

The choice for families is clear this election: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals will cut paid parental leave, cut family payments and cut penalty rates, all while giving tax cuts to millionaires and multinationals. 

Labor will put people first. We will protect paid parental leave for young families. 

In 2011, Labor delivered Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme. Since then, more than 730,000 families have been given extra support to spend more time at home in the critical early months of their child’s life.  

Labor’s paid parental leave scheme gives eligible new parents 18 weeks’ pay at the National Minimum Wage. This is a modest and affordable scheme that appropriately targets assistance to women on low and middle incomes. More than 75 per cent of parents receiving Labor’s paid parental leave scheme are on incomes of less than $70,000 a year. 

Malcolm Turnbull’s election promise to cut paid parental leave shows how out of touch he is with middle and working class families. He is promising to cut support for hardworking families at the same time as promising a new $1000 baby bonus which the country can’t afford. 

Before the last election, the Liberals promised an unfair and unaffordable paid parental leave scheme that would have given $75,000 to wealthy people. After breaking their promise, the Liberals are now promising to cut thousands of dollars from the household budgets of young families. 

Only Labor can be trusted to deliver a fair paid parental leave scheme. 

According to a preliminary estimate by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, Labor’s proposal will cost $1.4 billion over the forward estimates. 

More information about Labor’s plan to protect paid parental leave is available here: www.alp.org.au/protectpaidparentalleave 

SUNDAY, 8 MAY 2016