December 06, 2014
Linda Hamill and daughter Charlie White. Picture: Stuart Milligan Source: News Corp Australia
WEALTHY mums will be banned from big payouts under Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme, and the savings will be used to make childcare more affordable for all.
The Prime Minister will announce he has bowed to pressure to change the PPL scheme in the hope it will secure Senate support to get it up and running in 2015.
An exclusive Galaxy poll reveals that 64 per cent of all voters want Mr Abbott to scale back parental leave and redirect the money into childcare. The policy shift is backed by 71 per cent of Labor voters.
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The overhaul of the scheme is likely to fund the extension of the 50 per cent childcare rebate for the first time to carers working in the family home, including qualified nannies.
The existing 1.5 per cent levy on Australia’s largest companies to fund the PPL will stand despite the changes, which will anger big business. The proceeds will go into PPL and potentially at-home childcare.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal that Mr Abbott has agreed in principle to consider a new means test and an even lower cap on the current maximum payout of $50,000.
Kimberley Cornwell. Picture: Kylie Else
The Abbott Government is working on options to be announced early next year to develop a new means test. Women earning over $150,000 could miss out entirely and be forced to rely on existing company schemes.
Women earning six-figure salaries will no longer secure a full replacement wage because the cap on maximum payouts will be reduced below $50,000.
Mr Abbott said he accepted families needed more support for childcare.
“Two things are needed to help families and get more women into the workforce — a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme and affordable, accessible childcare. They go hand-in-hand,’’ he said.
“Paid parental leave will be refined so that help is better targeted towards the hundreds of thousands of low- and middle-income families.”
Linking childcare and PPL could provide a battering ram to get the scheme through a hostile Senate.
The recent Productivity Commission inquiry into childcare called for the Government to redirect money from the PPL scheme into childcare.
The idea of a single means-tested payment that rolls childcare rebate and the childcare benefit into a single means-tested payment will be shelved.
IT’S A BONUS
LINDA Hamill’s seven-month-old daughter Charlie is due to start childcare next year.
McKinnon resident Ms Hamill, who is engaged to Lucas White, said she would choose a paid parental leave scheme over more affordable childcare.
“I would have been better off financially and it would have enabled me to have stayed at home longer,” she said.
“It would be great to have both and it would make a huge difference to women with young children.”
THUMBS UP
EXPECTANT mother Kimberley Cornwell, who was in line to receive six months paid parental leave, said she would prefer the money be put into childcare.
Ms Cornwell, 29, and husband Jason are expecting their first child, a girl, in January.
“I’m looking at taking 12 months off after the birth before returning to work full-time,” Ms Cornwell, of Rosanna, said.
“Our daughter will probably spend three days a week in childcare and two days with her grandparents so affordable childcare would definitely be better for us.”
Paid parental leave: Means test for scheme plus move to make childcare affordable
