Announcement date
29 March 2022
Link to announcement
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2022-23-budget-boost-support-australian-women-and-girls
Problem being addressed
The current Paid Parental Leave scheme provides 18 weeks of Parental Leave Pay (PLP) for the primary carer and two weeks of Dad and Partner Pay (DaPP) to fathers/partners. Under the current income testing rules, a family in which the mother earns more than $151,350 (even when the partner has no income) would not be entitled to PLP, while families in which a mother earns up to $151,350 can access PLP even if her partner earns a high income. Further, the DaPP payment cannot be taken in parallel with employer paid leave as is the case for PLP. There are criticisms that the current policy settings reinforce gender inequities in caregiving by making it hard for fathers/partners to take significant time from their jobs to bond with and care for their baby, and does not take into account how the composition of the workforce is changing by discriminating against families where the mother is the higher income earner.
Proposal
The proposed changes to the Paid Parental Leave scheme are:
- Combine Dad and Partner Pay (DaPP) into Parental Leave Pay (PLP) to create a single payment;
- Provide up to 20 weeks fully flexible payment to either parent of a newborn or recently adopted child; and
- Amend the income test, to allow those who do not meet the current individual income threshold to still qualify for payment by meeting a combined family income threshold of $350,000 per annum.
Assessed RIS outcome
Adequate
Regulatory burden
The Department of the Social Services estimates that this measure will result in annual regulatory costs of $0.92 million on average, over 10 years.