Today’s SMH story about Tony Abbott’s parental leave plan is basically old news since Tony Abbott outlined his six month scheme of paid parental leave in his book Battlelines. Abbott suggested it was to be funded by a levy of 0.5 on payroll tax, rather than from general revenue, and presumably this is still his view, since he was critical of the government’s proposal.

I agree with Abbott’s views on some aspects of the current scheme, so maybe his proposals will be a useful goad to improve the present government plans.

Firstly, six months is what most people wanted for paid parental leave and Rudd’s 18 weeks plan was a compromise with future expectations, so perhaps the six extra weeks could be a vote winner for Abbott. Read more »