AUSTRALIA MAY have yet another drawcard to lure Kiwis across the Ditch, with the government and opposition there last week promising more generous paid parental leave entitlements than are paid here.

The Australian government will from next year pay new parents the minimum wage of $544 a week for 18 weeks, while the opposition is pledging even more – paid leave for six months at full salary, capped at $A150,000 funded from a new tax on companies. New Zealand currently pays parents 14 weeks at $429.74 a week, below the minimum wage of $510 a week.

Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson said the government could not afford to expand the number of weeks covered or to increase payments. ”The government is borrowing heavily to maintain current levels of public services and simply isn’t in a position to consider extending paid parental leave.” But Labour’s spokeswoman for women’s affairs, Sue Moroney, says New Zealand risks slipping further behind Australia and other countries in economic and social competitiveness if the government does not extend the paid parental leave scheme.

And the Families Commission and the Parenting Council argue that the government’s emphasis should be shifted from childcare subsidies to paid parental leave because the economic, educational, health and general social benefits in the long run far outweigh the short-term impact on the budget. Lesley Max, the chair of the Parenting Council, said economics was not the only way to gain a competitive advantage over other countries. ”I don’t think this is a party political matter. If we want to build a strong and well educated society and are concerned for our prosperity, the single most important thing we can do is to foster attachment between mother and baby, parent and baby. ”That is the foundation of our society. ”I’m aware that the time isn’t right in New Zealand to be proposing costly new policies, but paid parental leave should not go off the agenda for two reasons. ”The overwhelming one is the wellbeing of the baby and the other is our competitiveness with Australia and other countries.”

Moroney has introduced a private member’s bill to parliament that proposes extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks by 2013. ”We need to do it because all the evidence and research tells us babies that are well supported in the first six months thrive thereafter. ”Having unstressed, well-supported families around them in the first six months of their lives means that they get a great start. ”It is important that we stay competitive. ”Most of Europe now has six months [paid parental leave], so, it’s not just between Australia and us, it’s the rest of the world leaving us behind. ”It’s just another factor that people will consider, particularly people in that demographic that we need to retain in this country; and that is people in their 20s and 30s, who will be thinking about the impact of paid parental leave and the cost of raising a family.”

The Families Commission is pushing for 13 months’ paid leave – 12 months for the mother and one month for the father – by 2015. Commissioner Gregory Fortuin said: ”If you want to run economic arguments then you can look at the cost of what will happen if you don’t do these things. ”We need to put in place a long-term strategy to build better families, which ultimately will build better communities and better societies. ”There’s a strong business case. If I’m an employer, I will get far better value if one of my employees has a stable family where they are there for their children, which then means that they are happier and more productive and need to take less time off.”

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