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New Australian parents will be entitled to more flexible paid parental leave after new changes passed federal parliament this week.

The changes combine two exisiting payments into a shared 20 week scheme, and it’s now easier for new dads to access paid leave. More changes are flagged, which will progressively increase the amount of leave up to 26 weeks by 2026.

The new changes will come into effect for parents whose babies are born or adopted from July 2023. Either parents is able to apply for paid parental leave first, and they’ll also be able to take the entitlement in multiple blocks. So if parents can take as little as one day of paid parental leave, in between working.

Single parents will have access to the full 20 weeks.

There’s also a new family income threshold of $350,000 per year, which means 3000 additional parents will become eligible for the scheme.

“Improving paid parental leave is a critical, nation-building reform. Paid Parental Leave is vital for the health and wellbeing of parents and their children,” said Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth.

“Around 180,000 Australian families take up this benefit each year and they will now be able to share their entitlement in the way that best suits their circumstances.”

Newborn

In October last year, the government confirmed it wanted to expand paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has been calling for Australian parents to have access to 52 weeks of paid parental leave.

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  • Great news for new parents

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  • Great for parents, but very hard for those trying to run a business in this day and age with costs going up all the time. Of course young parents who have just started their businesses miss out both ways.

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  • This will be helpful for lots of families giving them more time to bond with their babies.

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  • This will be very helpful and will ease a lot of stress for new parents. When my boys were born I wasn’t allowed to have any time off work so my Mother would look after them while I was working.

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  • About time!! I wish I had this with my first. Really though it would be nice if it was for a year like Canada.

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  • This is fantastic news for new parents to be! About time they extended it

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  • It will be really great for families. We had no famiky here to support us when my boys were born and my husband wasnt able tontake off for more than a few days unlike my cousin in Sweden who took months off without any worries

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  • This is fantastic news and about time.

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  • I think this is great. It won’t benefit me, but I think it’s good for society overall.

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  • Hmmm, I have no expectation of our Governments to provide me with any payments to support my parenting/child, but would have welcomed any of these payments when my son was a baby.

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  • Great news for new parents.

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  • We live in wealthy times. I wonder how it is all possible.

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  • That’s great, wish it was around when I had my babies.

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  • Good. I won’t be having any more children, but this is excellent news for future parents.

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  • There is just so much available nowadays.

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  • That’s such great news, shame I missed out.

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  • This is great news. Very different from when I had my babies. I think parents should be home as long as they choose and this will help.

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  • This makes me
    So so so so so happy.
    Please just enable parents to be able to afford to have more time with their little ones – the benefits will be so worth it!

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  • This should’ve happened a long time ago. I was in no way ready to return only after 4 months. Good to see.

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  • It is the way of the modern world. Do hope it will be affordable for the employers or there might be even less jobs available down the track.

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