Australia still lags behind rest of developed world on parental leave, despite proposed changes

The Australian government is being urged to look at wage replacement when it considers changes to parental leave.

As it stands, the primary carer can access 18 weeks and secondary carer two weeks, all paid at the minimum wage.

That could soon change to parents being able to split the available 20 weeks between them.

Family advocate Georgie Dent, executive director of The Parenthood, told Tom Elliott the changes were positive, but Australia was still well behind other developed nations.

“The average length of paid leave in the OECD is 50 weeks, and in more countries than not a replacement wage rate is offered,” she said.

“If we were looking at having a world class system, we’d have to look at having a wage replacement rate.

“We know dads around the world are far more likely to take paid leave, when it is more than the minimum wage.”

Press PLAY below to hear her explain what she’d like to see

Picture: Getty iStock