Paid parental leave welcome – if it's delivered
13-May-2009
Australian families pleased about the Government’s plans for Paid Parental leave should not hold their breath on the delivery of such a scheme, Shadow Minister for Women Sophie Mirabella warned today.
“Essentially Paid Parental leave has now become just another “election promise”, with the Rudd Government’s decision to delay its introduction until after the next election in 2011. This has unfortunately left a cloud of uncertainty over the future of the scheme.”
“Parents will remember the much-publicised promise at the last election to built 260 new Childcare Centres throughout the nation in order to end the dreaded double-drop off. This Budget reveals how that promise is now in tatters – not one Centre is operational and they’ve now indefinitely put on hold plans for 222 of these promised Centres.”
“Why should Paid Parental leave be any different?”
Mrs Mirabella said the Prime Minister had ensured he included an “out” clause in his media release on the Paid parental Leave Scheme when he declared: “The scheme will come into effect when the economy is expected to be recovering and the economic outlook improved.”
“The Budget papers show that our nation will plunge deeper into debt and that debt as a percentage of GDP will peak in about 2013. Labor’s reckless spending means the economy will not be greatly improved by 2011 – in fact, we will be paying billions extra each year in interest payment alone to service Labor’s debt.”
“If the economy has not turned the corner, will the scheme be further delayed? We know Labor has form – their L.A.W tax cuts were actually legislated but after the 1993 election they reneged on their promise and failed to deliver them.”
“I wonder what new “smoke and mirrors” tricks the Rudd Government will come up with in 2011 to further disappoint the women of Australia?” Mrs Mirabella said.
Mrs Mirabella said that a close examination of the Budget figures revealed that the Government is giving with one hand and taking back even more with the other.
“Over the next five years, the introduction of Paid Parental Leave will cost the Government $730 million. But over the same period they will take more than three times that amount – a whopping $2.4 billion – out of the pockets of Australian families through changes to Family Tax Payments and eligibility.”
“Working families are bearing the brunt of Labor’s reckless spending. Paid Parental Leave is a distant promise and in the meantime Labor is racking up a debt equivalent to $9,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.”
“Economists have predicted it will take up to 20 years to pay back the debt that Labor has created with its reckless spending. It’s ironic that babies born in a few years, hopefully under the new Paid Parental Scheme if it is in fact introduced, will most likely have grown and become tax payers before the nation recovers from the legacy of debt that this Government has created.”