Abbott’s mistake

Tony Abbott says he’s had a change of heart on paid maternity leave and now believes it is a good idea.

Great call, Tony. Most employers – and indeed, most in the community – support the idea of paid maternity leave, as it provides an important tool to keep women in the workforce and is one measure that helps to solve the eternal problem of discrimination.

But Abbott’s suggested that medium and large employers should be slugged with a new tax to fund a universal paid parental leave scheme is simply stupid.

Not only will it lead to a bigger tax burden for a small group of employers – and make no mistake, this will hit a huge number of medium-sized companies – but female entrepreneurs have told SmartCompany this morning that it could actually lead to increased discrimination against women, as employers change their hiring practices in a bid to keep their costs down.

The Rudd Government’s paid parental leave scheme, which will see the Government fund 18 weeks of paid parental leave at the minimum wage, is a sensible, sustainable policy that has been developed, explored and debated for a number of years (including through a Productivity Commission inquiry).

The Abbott policy has been cooked up with little thought for the affects it will have on corporate Australia’s profitability and female participation in the workforce.

Now, Abbott did say that corporate tax rates would be lowered over time to offset the impact of the levy, but he’s mad if he thinks this will placate the critics of this plan.

Indeed, this morning Abbott told ABC Radio that voters should not “assume… that this is the last word from the Coalition in terms of benefits for families”.

He also said this morning that special tax levies like that proposed for the parental leave scheme were in the national interest. “For very, very important social reasons, for national interest reasons, you have got to say we need the money and we can’t summon the money out of thin air unlike this government.”

Entrepreneurs will be wondering what other schemes Abbott might be cooking up, and whether he’ll ask business to fund them too.