Parties bid for new mother’s votes

Women’s votes have never been more important to Australia’s political parties than they will be in the Federal elections due later this year.

And the Federal Opposition Leader, Tony
Abbott, has put in a high bid for them, with a six month paid parental leave scheme, which he has just announced.

It would see parents paid the equivalent of their current salary, up to an annual rate of $150,000, for a period of six months.

The new scheme, which would be funded by a 1.7 per cent levy on big business, leaves Labor’s rival scheme in the shade.

Labor is merely offering  women 18 weeks’ pay at minimum wage levels.

This means parents could get up to $75,000, under the Coalition’s scheme, against just $9,800 under the government’s plan, which still has to go to the Senate.

Mr Abbott estimates his tax on Australia’s 3,200 firms earning more than $5 million a year would net $2.7 billion.

He said he did not expect big business would be pleased with his plan.

“I don’t expect anyone to cheer about having to pay more but I expect that even people who operate in big business think of themselves as citizens as well as business people,” Mr Abbott told reporters.

He was right about that.

Several business leaders including Peter Anderson, chief executiveChamber of Commerce and Industry attacked his idea.

“Imposing additional costs like these on the business community is not fair because the benefits to business are uneven and are far less significant than the benefits to the mums and dads who are going to be taking the maternity-paternity leave,” Mr Anderson said.

Two government ministers, Jenny Macklin and Tanya Plibersek, ridiculed Mr Abbott’s announcement, dismissing it as “a thought bubble.”

“His sham policy has no detail, no costings and no timeline,” the two ministers said.

“Australian families need certainty on paid parental leave to plan for the future,” they added.

“This is yet another backflip on parental leave from Mr Abbott,” the two ministers said.

“As a minister in the Howard government he campaigned for years against paid parental leave, saying it would be introduced ‘over his dead body.’”

Mr Abbott’s announcement was timed to coincide with International Women’s Day.

Despite real progress, over recent decades, the long held goal of equal pay, for Australian women, remains as elusive as ever.

The latest figures, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, show the average weekly earnings of the nation’s women are still barely two thirds those of its male workers.