Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the paid maternity leave scheme available to his own staff and to the employees in his own department, which provides for full salary replacement while on maternity leave and is therefore much more generous than the arrangements that he is proposing to give to Australian families. Why shouldn’t the future mums and dads of Australia be entitled to at least the same benefits as those of his own staff? Will the Prime Minister now join with the coalition to give Australian families a fair go by backing a paid parental leave scheme that will affect less than half of one per cent of Australia’s businesses but help up to 146,000 Australian families every year?

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