Newspoll survey June 2007

Background

Australia and the US are now the only developed countries without a national paid maternity leave scheme. The only general provision at present in Australia is the Commonwealth baby bonus, of $4,100.

The Australian Government policy is to leave paid maternity leave to market forces. While Australian public servants and employees of a number of large employers have access to paid maternity leave, most women in the Australian workforce do not have access. Under Work Choices the chances of women obtaining such a provision without having to trade off other employment conditions are remote.

Direct payment of such leave by employers can be a significant cost, particularly for small business. A scheme mandating such direct payment would be likely to lead to employers being reluctant to employ women of child bearing age.

Current proposals therefore involve funding by Government, or funding through a levy on all employers and all employees, with or without Government input.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has proposed a scheme to pay women 14 weeks paid maternity leave with payment capped at level of the minimum wage. This would be paid entirely by the Commonwealth Government from general revenue. Recipients would not be eligible for the baby bonus nor family tax benefit while receiving this payment.

Another proposed scheme would be to provide six months fully paid leave, funded by a levy on employers of around $5 per $1000 of the wage bill and an equal levy on all employees of $5 per $1000 of wages and salaries. This would also include paying the employer a lump sum equivalent to 7 weeks wages of an employee who took maternity leave to offset the cost of recruiting and/or training a temporary replacement. The current Baby Bonus could be rolled into this scheme as the Commonwealth contribution but would also continue to be payable to women outside paid work.

The National Foundation for Australian Women and the NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People commissioned some questions in the July Newspoll to find out how much support there was among the Australian population for a Paid Maternity Leave Scheme and related issues. They also wanted to test whether there would be any support for some funding principles including contributions by employers and employees. They expected low level of support for these because they had been very little public debate on funding options and the public would not know the size of the expected contributions (around 1% of total wage bill for six months paid leave)