Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Cargoton woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Monday,
Speaker 2: the twenty third of October.
Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm sam.
Speaker 2: Last week, the federal government introduced legislation to increase paid
Speaker 2: parental leave to twenty six weeks.
Speaker 3: Paid parental leave was increased from eighteen to twenty weeks
Speaker 3: earlier this year, but new draft laws would see it
Speaker 3: gradually rise every year until it reaches twenty six weeks
Speaker 3: in July of twenty twenty six. We'll have more on
Speaker 3: what that means and if it will pass in the
Speaker 3: Deep Dive, But first, Aara, what's making headlines this morning?
Speaker 2: Over the weekend, streets around the world were filled with
Speaker 2: large protests in relation to the ongoing war in Israel
Speaker 2: and Gaza. The largest of these was held in London,
Speaker 2: where over one hundred thousand people participated in pro Palestine protests.
Speaker 2: Also over the weekend, two American hostages were released by HUMMAS.
Speaker 2: They were a mother and daughter, Judith and Natalie Ranan,
Speaker 2: and are the first hostages to be freed by HUMMAS,
Speaker 2: who are believed to have taken around two hundred hostages.
Speaker 3: Masaamini, the twenty two year old who died after being
Speaker 3: arrested by police in Iran, has been posthumously awarded the
Speaker 3: European Union's top prize for human rights. The award also
Speaker 3: went to the movement of protesters that fought for women's
Speaker 3: rights after her death. Amini's death sparked international protests after
Speaker 3: she was allegedly beaten by Iran's Morality police for violating
Speaker 3: the country's hijablaws.
Speaker 2: US President Joe Biden will host Australian Prime Minister Anthony
Speaker 2: Alberzi for state visit this week, marking Albanesi's first official
Speaker 2: trip to DC as Prime minister. Just hours before leaving
Speaker 2: for the US, Albanesi announced he will also travel to
Speaker 2: China in early November, which will be the first visit
Speaker 2: to China by any Australian Prime Minister since twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: And today's good news, Scientists have discovered a breakthrough that
Speaker 3: could lead to more efficient recycling of lithium iron batteries
Speaker 3: found in electric vehicles. Swedish researchers at Chalmers University developed
Speaker 3: a method that allows almost all of the aluminium and
Speaker 3: lithium found in EV batteries to be recycled without the
Speaker 3: need to use any harmful chemicals. If the process is
Speaker 3: scaled up, it would mean these recycled metals could be
Speaker 3: used in future battery production.
Speaker 2: Paid parental leave could increase to twenty six weeks by
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six under a government proposal that was introduced
Speaker 2: to Parliament last week.
Speaker 3: So Zara, before we get stuck into those draft laws,
Speaker 3: can we go through what paid parental leave in an
Speaker 3: Australian context actually means and how it works.
Speaker 2: Sure, So, currently, eligible primary carers can access twenty weeks
Speaker 2: of leave that is paid for by the government at
Speaker 2: minimum wage. Eligible parents need to have worked consistent hours
Speaker 2: prior to the birth or to the adoption of their child,
Speaker 2: and they also need to meet an income test proving
Speaker 2: that they require the payment.
Speaker 3: And when you're saying primary care, you mean the person
Speaker 3: who's taking the bulk of the responsibilities in looking after
Speaker 3: the newborn right.
Speaker 2: So, paid parental leave has traditionally been intended for the
Speaker 2: birth mother, except in circumstances like adoption or same sex families.
Speaker 2: Under the current system, the other parent can share in
Speaker 2: that twenty weeks of leave.
Speaker 3: And is this the only kind of paid parental leave
Speaker 3: that you can get?
Speaker 2: No, So I think it can often be a bit
Speaker 2: confusing because there are a couple of different schemes that
Speaker 2: you can access. So some employers have their own paid
Speaker 2: parental leave policy, and that is different to the twenty
Speaker 2: weeks of minimum wage that we're talking about that the
Speaker 2: government gives you, so private employer and the government. There
Speaker 2: are also laws that entitle employees up to twelve months
Speaker 2: of unpaid parental leave. So under that program, if you
Speaker 2: go on parental leave, as long as you've worked at
Speaker 2: the company for at least twelve months, your employer has
Speaker 2: to guarantee your job for you to return to.
Speaker 3: So the way I'm understanding it is that paid parental
Speaker 3: leave is what the government is paying for, and then
Speaker 3: some employers can fund their own leave policies as well.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and employer funded paid parental leave doesn't affect your
Speaker 2: eligibility for the Government's paid parental leave. As an employee,
Speaker 2: you can access both at the same time.
Speaker 3: So give me a sense of how many Australians are
Speaker 3: actually accessing paid parental leave.
Speaker 2: So what we know is there's around one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty thousand families that receive paid parental leave every year
Speaker 2: and almost all of those payments are redeemed by female parents.
Speaker 3: Okay, so now the government's thinking about the future of
Speaker 3: paid parental leave, what are the proposed changes.
Speaker 2: So paid parental leave, as I said, was actually expanded
Speaker 2: already from eighteen to two twenty weeks earlier this year,
Speaker 2: so there's already been some momentum in the space. On
Speaker 2: Thursday of last week, the government introduced new legislation to
Speaker 2: increase that further.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: According to the draft laws, paid parental leave would gradually
Speaker 2: increase over a two year period, from twenty to twenty
Speaker 2: two weeks in July next year, and then from twenty
Speaker 2: two to twenty four the year after, with a final
Speaker 2: increase from twenty four to twenty.
Speaker 4: Six weeks in July twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: When one parent takes the paid parental leave what happens
Speaker 3: to the other parent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the legislation does include a proposal to add
Speaker 2: four weeks of what's called concurrent leave, so that's for
Speaker 2: parents caring for the same child, so a month of
Speaker 2: lead that they could take at the same time to
Speaker 2: allow partners to provide more support. And it's aimed at
Speaker 2: increasing female workforce participation and addressing this idea of the
Speaker 2: motherhood penalty, which is understood to be a key driver
Speaker 2: of the gender pay gup here in Australia.
Speaker 3: So these are some potential changes that would impact a
Speaker 3: lot of Australians. Where has the impetus for this change
Speaker 3: come from?
Speaker 2: So you might remember, I think we did a podcast
Speaker 2: episode about it. The government hosted a National Jobs and
Speaker 2: Skills Summit last year and during that time, peak bodies
Speaker 2: and unions called for paid parental leave to be expanded
Speaker 2: from eighteen weeks to twenty six weeks. At the time,
Speaker 2: PM Anthony Albernezi called it a worthy idea, but he
Speaker 2: said that the government was restricted by budget constraints, something
Speaker 2: that we hear all the time on any given issue
Speaker 2: of the day. But then he did announce this increase
Speaker 2: to twenty weeks paid parental leave in April, and now
Speaker 2: we have seen the legislation be tabled, so it's in
Speaker 2: line with what businesses and unions were originally seeking when
Speaker 2: they made those comments at the Job Summit.
Speaker 3: It's just taken a couple of steps, so it's.
Speaker 2: In line with what businesses and unions were looking for
Speaker 2: during that summit. And I know that there are a
Speaker 2: lot of advocates in the space who were at these
Speaker 2: discussions really advocating for paid parental leave in this country
Speaker 2: to strengthen and improve.
Speaker 3: Okay, so eighteen to twenty six weeks is a pretty
Speaker 3: substantial increase. But then if we zoom out and look
Speaker 3: at Australia's place in the global landscape in terms of
Speaker 3: paid parental leave, how are we going when we compare
Speaker 3: ourselves to countries around the world.
Speaker 4: Oh, look, not great. No, it depends who which countries
Speaker 4: you're comparing.
Speaker 3: I feel like this is always when Northern Europe comes up.
Speaker 2: But look, if these reforms pass, it'd bring Australia's paid
Speaker 2: parental leave scheme closer to other developed countries like New Zealand,
Speaker 2: who had twenty six weeks of paid parental leave. But
Speaker 2: we're still very much lagging behind the policies in some
Speaker 2: of the world's biggest economies, those economies that make up
Speaker 2: the OECD countries. So, according to the OECD Family Database,
Speaker 2: average paid leave for mothers is, what.
Speaker 4: Do you think as is going up to twenty six
Speaker 4: maybe a couple.
Speaker 3: Of years, maybe kind of the mid thirties. Fifty one
Speaker 3: weeks okay, so a week off a full year.
Speaker 2: If we look at countries like Canada where up to
Speaker 2: forty weeks of paid leave can be shared between parents,
Speaker 2: but there one parent can't receive more than three thirty
Speaker 2: five weeks of benefits, so again that's trying to target
Speaker 2: that the sharing.
Speaker 4: Piece of it.
Speaker 2: In the UK, primary cares are entitled to thirty nine
Speaker 2: weeks paid parental leave and thirty seven weeks of paid
Speaker 2: leave can be shared by both parents. Finland, Slovakia and
Speaker 2: Portugal have the highest paid parental leave of OECD countries,
Speaker 2: with around one hundred and sixty weeks of paid leave
Speaker 2: available to mothers.
Speaker 3: So that is over three years, but that's not.
Speaker 2: One hundred and sixty weeks at full pais significantly less.
Speaker 2: Then on the other side of the spectrum, the US,
Speaker 2: naturally it's the only OECD country with no national paid
Speaker 2: parental leave entitlements.
Speaker 3: So clearly Australia's kind of I wouldn't say in the middle,
Speaker 3: but edging their way up the charts in terms of
Speaker 3: paid parental leave, Zara, How likely do you think it
Speaker 3: is that this will actually pass well?
Speaker 2: The Opposition has said it'll consider the draft laws before
Speaker 2: it takes any position on the proposal. Now we know,
Speaker 2: of course that the Government has a majority of seats
Speaker 2: in the Lower House. That's not a problem for them,
Speaker 2: but when the legislation gets to the Upper House they
Speaker 2: don't and they'll need some additional support to pass this legislation.
Speaker 2: The Greens have voice support for adding superannuation to paid
Speaker 2: parental leave, so we'll have to wait and see if
Speaker 2: that impacts negotiations because that's not in the bill that
Speaker 2: the Government has put forward at this point.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us on the Daily Ods
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Speaker 3: Until then, have a great day.