Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\nMcKenzie told Guardian Australia the party\u2019s policy was not about what was best for adults or the economy but \u201cabout what\u2019s best for children\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cPage has put some bold, evidence-based policy on the table, and taken a holistic approach. We will now be ground testing these with [the] community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be having upfront, positive and honest conversations with the Australian community about the recommendations in the Page report, because we believe it\u2019s important and necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Page report calls for paid parental leave to be extended up to 12 to 18 months, and replace the childcare subsidy and expanding payments for parental care, \u201ckinship care\u201d, home care, community care or centre-based daycare.<\/p>\n
It also recommends introducing tax incentives, including optional income-splitting \u201cduring child-rearing years\u201d whereby the higher earner transfers income or assets to their spouse to lower the household\u2019s tax burden. Other incentives could include a Hecs reduction for mothers of 25% per child, and a 25% income tax reduction for mothers per dependent child up to age 16.<\/p>\n
The report also includes recommendations to \u201csignificantly reduce the permanent migration program\u201d, \u201cphase down\u201d international student enrolments, as well as building more housing, and making larger family vehicles more affordable.<\/p>\n
McKenzie said the recommendations would go to the parliamentary budget office to be costed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids deserve and need us to have a holistic response to the challenges modern families face.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nationals discussed the recommendations and next steps at a planning meeting on Monday, receiving a briefing from the report\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n
The Liberal party is still considering policy options, so far favouring vouchers for childcare centres, nannies and grandparents. The Liberals are also weighing up family tax options, including income-splitting. The shadow minister, Matt O\u2019Sullivan, has not ruled any policy in or out as the Coalition tries to claw back support among women and young Australians.<\/p>\n
The Albanese government extended paid parental leave in 2022 from 18 weeks to 26 weeks which will come into effect on 1 July, paid at the national minimum wage. In 2024, the OECD average for paid parental leave was just over 52 weeks, while the European average was more than 66 weeks.<\/p>\n
The case for increasing parental leave<\/p>\n
Experts and advocates have called on the government to increase paid parental leave, which still sits at half the OECD average.<\/p>\n
International child development and trauma expert Benjamin Perks said parental-child attachment, developed over a child\u2019s first years of life, is \u201cthe best economic asset\u201d for a country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the main driver of productivity, learning, development and, when it\u2019s absent, it\u2019s a costly public health problem \u2013 addiction, crime, all of that stuff,\u201d Perks, the author of Trauma Proof, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would consider extending parental leave [in Australia]. Parents in countries like Estonia, which are doing very well economically, very vibrant, innovative, high-quality democracy, free market, they allow up to three years of parental leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgie Dent, the chief executive of advocacy organisation the Parenthood, has also urged the government to extend paid parental leave to 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of countries that offer far more generous paid parental leave policies,\u201d Dent said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often talk about creating an ecosystem where parents feel supported in the early years, and we believe that 12 months of paid parental leave is one of the key pillars we need to create that ecosystem. We then need families to have the option of high-quality, totally affordable early childhood education and care for when they\u2019re ready to go back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nationals will canvass tripling paid parental leave in Australia to up to 18 months and income-splitting options…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-529847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}