Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak tonight on the very important issue of paid maternity leave. It is an issue which has been spoken about, debated, deferred and put into the too hard basket by all sides of politics in Australia over the years, yet if we look around the world there are many countries that have successfully implemented paid maternity leave. Sweden, as an example, has an astonishing 16 months of paid maternity leave. Both Denmark and Canada have 12 months of paid maternity leave, and the United Kingdom has 10 months. Ireland, Italy and France, all European Union members, have six months, five months and four months of paid maternity leave respectively. Vietnam, Cuba, China and South Africa have paid maternity leave. The Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Iran all have three months of paid maternity leave. There are more countries that can be named. Regrettably, Australia languishes behind the rest of the world. If a comparison with the countries just named is made, one cannot draw the conclusion that paid maternity leave is beyond our abilities, is not affordable or is unworkable here in Australia.

Last Friday it was my privilege to launch in my electorate of Fowler a local paid maternity leave campaign in conjunction with Unions NSW. The successful launch at a local childcare centre in Bonnyrigg allowed me to talk to a number of young mothers and only confirmed to me the absolute need for paid maternity leave to be in place sooner rather than later. Unions NSW have suggested a model for paid maternity leave in a submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into paid maternity, paternity and parental leave. Their submission calls for a reasonable minimum of six months of paid leave and two weeks of prenatal leave, a total of 28 weeks. The system proposed by Unions NSW is of two parts. Firstly, a base payment should be paid to all mothers or primary carers irrespective of their previous employment status. Secondly, there should be a full wage replacement. While the precise modelling for this is still being worked out, it is essentially a pool of contributions by employers paying a levy into a central fund to be distributed as needed, not unlike superannuation.

The Unions NSW submission envisages that costs can be met through a combination of government funding—between $1.4 billion and $3.4 billion—and a payroll equivalent levy on business of between 0.9 per cent and 1.4 per cent. The advantages of a collective levy are that pressure is taken off small business and it allows for a predictable cost, unlike paying paid maternity leave enterprise by enterprise. It shares the costs across all businesses and across the life cycle of employment, it levels the playing field between big and small businesses for attracting and retaining women and it removes any incentive to discriminate against women. Additional government savings will come from taxation of the benefit and amalgamating family tax benefits.

The Unions NSW submission provides full costings. Unions NSW acknowledges that the argument of government needing not to intervene in providing for paid maternity leave and wage replacement if the market is already moving in that direction will certainly be made. However, the submission firmly argues that the market will never see it to be in the short-term interest to provide for certain categories of workers, particularly casuals and low-paid workers. A secondary result of the market forces argument may be that wages fall in industries where paid maternity leave offered institutionalising further the disadvantage of workers in female dominated sectors.

Government intervention is absolutely crucial to a successful outcome. We must all recognise the significant impact that childbirth has on the financial cycle of a woman’s life and her career and the additional financial burden that is placed on families. A fair and equitable system of paid maternity leave will leave mothers, and indeed all primary carers, in a better financial position, better equipped to handle the changes that occur to responsibilities, career and future unforeseen circumstances. I hope that the Rudd Labor government embraces the concept of paid maternity leave and I look forward to the day when I as a woman can see it successfully implemented.