• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• 1. Australia’s Paid Parental Leave scheme at a glance
• 2. Why Australia needs a Paid Parental Leave scheme
• 3. What Paid Parental Leave will achieve
• 4. Key outcomes of the Productivity Commission inquiry
• 5. Paid Parental Leave eligibility
• 6. The financial benefits for new parents
• 7. Claiming Paid Parental Leave
• 8. The role of employers
• 9. Interaction with existing leave entitlements
• 10. Implementation
• 11. Government changes to the Productivity Commission’s scheme
• 12. Review and evaluation
• 13. Further information
• Appendix

Australia’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme

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• Next: Section 5

4. Key outcomes of the Productivity Commission inquiry

The Productivity Commission considered a wide range of options for funding a PPL scheme. These included full direct employer financing, income contingent loans, pooled levy arrangements, concessional business tax arrangements and leave savings accounts.

The Commission analysed the benefits and disadvantages of each of these options and sought to balance the interests of employers and employees. The Productivity Commission recommended a scheme designed to provide wide coverage and modest financial benefits to working mothers, and to ensure minimal impact on employers. The Commission also recognised the current economic environment in Australia and concluded that the best option for Australia was a Government financed scheme.

In addition, the Commission recommended two key features for the scheme:

• in most cases employers should make the payments to their employees to ensure primary carers (predominantly women) stay connected with the workplace; and
• the scheme should cover 18 weeks of leave as it estimated that, coupled with other leave arrangements, this would allow most infants to be exclusively cared for by their parents for the first six months of life (without undue financial stress).

The Government accepted these recommendations and its PPL scheme has each of these three key features.

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• Next: Section 5

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