Plibersek sledges One Nation over paid parental leave
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson walked back a statement suggesting she wanted to scrap paid parental leave but remained concerned about the burden it would place on small businesses.
On Tuesday, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek accused Hanson of not understanding how paid parental leave works and said One Nation was pitting Australians against each other for election gains.
Following a speech at the National Press Club last week in which Hanson questioned why businesses should pay, the party leader said on Tuesday it had been “taken out of context”.
Speaking last Wednesday, Hanson said: “If women are taking leave and not getting paid because they’re not working, that’s fair enough. Why should business pay? But they’re not at work. That’s the difference. So [gender] “There is a salary difference.”
While appearing on Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise Tuesday morning, Hanson said: “It’s up to companies whether or not they want to give that to their employees as part of their policy. So there’s no way, shape or form that I’m actually saying to get rid of this. I’ve seen it be very beneficial for women to get back into the workforce.”
“No problem for state taxpayers [to] pay for it, but there are businesses, smaller businesses, that can’t afford it. [If] “If you put new pressure on small businesses to pay for maternity leave, they will actually close.”
Paid parental leave is available to all parents and is paid for by taxpayers. The policy offers 24 weeks of paid leave at minimum wage of $948.10 per week. On July 1, the period will be extended to 26 weeks.
The government provides funds to employers to be used as leave. However, if there is an administrative burden that the business cannot bear, payments can be made directly to the employee by the state. Employers may also choose to offer their own parental leave packages that can be applied consecutively to government-funded leave.
In a statement to this imprint, Plibersek said One Nation “doesn’t even understand how politics works.”
“Hanson has said multiple times for nearly a decade that he does not support paid parental leave.
Frankly, Australian families told him they wanted this and now he claims it was taken out of context,” Plibersek said.
“But Senator Hanson is wrong; small businesses do not need to force their employees to choose between career and family. Paid parental leave is taxpayer-funded leave for all eligible families, whether they are self-employed, working for a small business or at the largest corporations.”
Plibersek said the government was “proud” to expand the program and criticized One Nation for wanting to “eliminate workers’ rights.”
“Rolling back paid parental leave is just the beginning of attacks on women and families.”
In 2017, Hanson opposed changes to paid parental leave under the pretext that women had to “get pregnant” to receive benefits.
“I myself had a very difficult life as a single mother and worked a part-time job. I didn’t get any help or help from anyone… we have such a hand-out mentality,” Hanson said at the time.
Hanson’s comeback comes as his party faces new scrutiny on a range of policies that could win or lose influential women’s votes.
Hanson’s support is growing among female voters, a constituency vital to the success of conservative parties in recent elections. The coalition’s failure to attract female voters in subsequent elections contributed to the decline in their representation in parliament.
In a poll conducted by the Resolve Political Monitor and published by this imprint this month, support for One Nation rose to 24 percent among women and 22 percent among men.
Hanson said last week that she felt it was “too late” for abortions to occur after 20 weeks of pregnancy and that the procedure after 39 weeks was “clearly inhumane” but did not directly oppose the procedures.
But One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts advocated for a complete ban on abortion at a conference in Brisbane this month, saying his “goal” was to end abortion procedures altogether. One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce this month campaigned against the rare practice of “sex selection” abortion.
The issue became politically contentious in the 2024 Queensland state election, where the failed Labor government used abortion as a wedge for David Crisafulli’s LNP. The issue was so controversial that, after Crisafulli was elected prime minister, he blocked parliament from any discussion of the province’s abortion laws.
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Nick Newling is the federal politics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
