Academics call for further improvements to Australian leave provisions
Academics say Australia ‘remains a global laggard’ on work/family benefits, despite recent changes.
The Work, Care and Family Policies Federal Election Benchmarks 2025 report by a roundtable of 36 academics from 18 universities has urged the next federal government to extend government-paid parental leave to 52 weeks, split carers and personal leave into separate 10-day entitlements, and investigate extending personal leave (sick/carers leave) and annual leave to casual workers.
The report commends the many initiatives undertaken since the 2022 federal election but says ‘much remains to be done’.
‘The challenge at hand is how Australia implements the National Strategy for Gender Equality and its vision of an Australia where people are safe, treated with respect, have choices and have access to resources and equal outcomes no matter their gender.’
It says Australia has reached a turning point in understanding ‘the positive relationship between care and work’.
‘Sustained investment in Australia’s work and care policies is required to underpin productivity, economic security and wellbeing.’
Since the 2022 federal election, Australia has introduced major reforms in work, care, and family policy.
Key changes include: expanding Paid Parental Leave to 26 weeks by 2026 with greater flexibility and superannuation contributions; providing three days of subsidised Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) for all children; delivering overdue wage increases for many care workers; introducing universal paid family and domestic violence leave – an international first; and adopting gender-responsive budgeting.
These federal initiatives have been further strengthened by state-level innovations, especially in the ECEC sector.
The group says that ‘gender equality in work and care is now a policy priority,’ but despite the government's progress, ‘Australia remains a global laggard in the level of national investment in ECEC and aged care, the length and generosity of our paid parental leave system, and decent work for worker-carers and the care workforce’.
In April, the Greens announced an election policy to double the length of paid parental leave, paid as a replacement wage. Their plan is to increase paid parental leave from 26 to 52 weeks. They want superannuation paid on all 52 weeks and the extension of PPL to PhD students, who are currently excluded from the scheme.
Greens women's spokesperson (and now leader) Senator Larissa Waters said in a statement that ‘increasing the length and rate of paid parental leave improves women’s economic security, reduces the gender pay gap and increases the likelihood of mothers returning to work’.
The Greens policy included an increase in the ‘use it or lose it’ component for the secondary parent from four to 12 weeks, saying this has given parents in Nordic countries an incentive to share caring and household responsibilities.
An example: parental leave
Australia’s leave length and pay rate are well below top-ranking countries. In Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, average paid maternity leave is around 18 weeks at full pay – Australia meets this in weeks, but not in pay level.
Scandinavian countries have longer leave, better pay, and incentives for shared parenting. Many Australian employers offer additional paid leave, but it is not a universal measure.
In world-leading Sweden, the primary duration of paid parental leave (PPL) falls short of the 26 weeks recommended by international health guidelines to support breastfeeding.
It recommends expanding PPL to 52 weeks, with four months reserved for each parent and four months to share. As a first step, it suggests the next Government extend PPL to 34 weeks – 26 weeks for the birthing parent and eight weeks for the partner.
The roundtable also calls for personal and carer’s leave to be split into two separate entitlements of 10 days each, and for paid carer’s leave to be extended over time to match international best practice.
Key recommendations
The roundtable report makes 35 recommendations across six areas:
Decent work that supports decent care
Leave for caring purposes
Sustainable, high-quality care infrastructure
Gender pay equality
Safe and respectful workplaces
Institutional support for decent work and care.
Specific recommendations include:
Leave entitlements: Explore extending personal/carer’s and annual leave to all employees, including casuals.
Flexible work: Give all workers with six months of service the right to request flexible arrangements. Employers should have a positive duty to accommodate these requests, with refusals allowed only on grounds of unjustifiable hardship (replacing ‘reasonable business grounds’).
Working hours: Strengthen the NES cap on maximum weekly hours to make it enforceable and consider mechanisms – such as stronger penalties or WHS provisions – to reduce long working hours.
Migrant worker protections: Reform the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) and other temporary visa programs to allow workers to change employers, bring family members, and access Medicare.
Carer’s leave: Extend unpaid carer’s leave to 30 days annually, with access to income support during this period.
Early childhood education and care (ECEC): Provide universal, free, high-quality ECEC to boost women’s workforce participation, and expand public ownership in the sector.
Care workforce reform: Shift aged care, disability, and support systems toward quality service over profit. Invest in a secure, well-paid, directly employed care workforce with access to training and career progression.