Abbott & Hockey: Don’t force mothers back to work early by cutting parental leave rights

— Campaign via Fair Agenda member Anna —

Sign here:

http://www.fairagenda.org/ppl

In a slap in the face to the mums of Australia, Treasurer Joe Hockey has used Mother’s Day to announce a major cut to paid parental leave rights. Under his new proposed policy, the 51% of mothers eligible to combine government and employer leave to support themselves and their families while looking after newborns look set to have their government funded paid parental leave cut.1

It’s likely that Joe Hockey will need legislation to pass the Senate in order to cut back paid parental leave rights. This is our opportunity. In the 12 months since the last budget countless Government measures have been scrapped as a result of voters expressing their anger.

Help show our ‘Prime Minister for Women’ Tony Abbott, Treasurer Joe Hockey, and the cross bench Senators that Aussie families won’t stand for this. Sign the petition to stop the cuts.

More information

Government-provided paid parental leave was introduced with the intention of allowing parents to access it in combination with employer-provided schemes. This was a deliberate choice – designed to help lengthen the period people could take to care for their newborns. In particular, to help bring women closer to the six month period that the Productivity commission recommends as the minimum period of postnatal absence from work needed to provide health and welfare benefits to new mothers and babies.2

This is the same period of time Prime Minister Tony Abbot told voters he was going to extend parental leave to under his ‘signature paid parental leave scheme’.

Instead, in a remarkable feat of contortion, the government now wants to reduce the amount of time people who work can spend caring for their newborns. According to WA today, about 27 per cent of new mothers (around 45,000 women a year) will have part of their leave access taken away to match the government’s minimum level; and 20% of mothers (about 34,000 women a year) will have their leave access reduced to that provided by their employer alone.3

–References–

1. Abbott’s constitutional curveball on paid parental leave, The Drum, 22 January 2014.
2. Productivity Commission Inquiry Report, Paid Parental Leave: Support for Parents with Newborn Children, February 2009, reference 2.41
3. Almost 50% of mums to lose government paid parental leave entitlements, WA Today, 10 May 2015.
Renee for Fair Agenda