Paid maternity Leave newspoll survey methodology

Newspoll conducts an independent and statistically sound survey of a stratified random sample of 1202 respondents aged 18 years and over. The questions commissioned were as follows:

Now a question about paid maternity leave. It has been suggested that all working women in Australia who take time off from their job to have a baby should continue to be paid for at least part of the time they are away from work.

In principle, are you personally in favour or against all working women in Australia having access to some type of paid maternity leave?

Those in favour (or don’t know) were then asked the following question:

A national paid maternity leave scheme of this type could be funded in a number of different ways. For each of the following, please tell me if you personally would be in favour or against this way of funding a paid maternity leave scheme. (in a randomised order)

• It being funded by all Australian employers
• It being funded by all Australian workers
• Funding being shared between Australian employers and workers
• Funding being shared between Australian employers, workers, and the Federal government

All respondents were then asked

Thinking now about women with newborn babies. Do you personally agree or disagree with each of the following statements (in a randomised order)?

• The most important thing for a baby in its first year of life is to have the full-time care of at least one parent
• More needs to be done in Australia so that mothers can spend more time with their newborn babies
• Financial pressure means that many new mothers have to return to work too soon after having a baby

And depending on their answer

• Is that strongly agree or somewhat agree? /Is that strongly disagree or somewhat disagree?