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Questions

Part A

Q.1 Are you aware of any more specific information that would assist calculation of the number of women who are in the Australian workforce at the time they have a baby?

Q.2 Are you aware of any more specific information that would assist calculation of the number of women who are in the Australian workforce who are eligible for unpaid maternity leave?

Q.3 Is there an accurate way to estimate take up rates for unpaid or paid maternity leave under current provisions based on current information about women and work?

Q.4 Is there an accurate way to estimate take up rates for unpaid or paid paternity leave under current provisions based on current information about men and work?

Q.5 Is it more likely that women or men would take leave if they were eligible for payments? Please provide details.

Q.6 Do you consider that government support for families with newborn children may be considered to approximate paid maternity leave?

Q.7 Do you consider that government support for families with newborn children is appropriately targeted? If not what additional or alternative support do you consider is required?

Q.8 Do you have any more information than provided in this paper on current arrangements that women and their families make to support themselves at the time of the birth of a new child?

Part B

Q.9 If a paid maternity leave scheme were to be introduced in Australia what components would it need to include in order to meet relevant international agreements?

Part C

Q.10 Which objectives, whether discussed in this paper or not, do you consider should be the primary objectives of a paid maternity leave system? Why?

Q.11 Do you consider that a paid maternity leave system would be able to meet any or all of these objectives? If so, to what extent?

Q.12 Are there particular design elements for a paid maternity leave scheme that would be crucial for achieving particular objectives? If so, what are those elements?

Q.13 Are you aware of any additional international or Australian evidence or studies that document the effectiveness of paid maternity leave in achieving any of these objectives?

Q.14 Do you consider that a paid maternity leave scheme would assist to provide greater workplace equity?

Q.15 Are there particular design elements for a paid maternity leave system that would be crucial for achieving workplace equity? If so, what are they?

Q.16 Are you aware of any additional international or Australian evidence or studies that document the effectiveness of paid maternity leave in achieving workplace equity?

Q.17 Do you consider that a paid maternity leave scheme would provide appropriate support for women and families with new babies?

Q.18 Are there particular design elements for a paid maternity leave system that would be crucial for providing appropriate support for women and families? If so, what are they?

Q.19 Are you aware of any additional international or Australian evidence or studies that document the effectiveness of paid maternity leave in supporting women and families?

Q.20 Do you agree that a paid maternity leave scheme would provide commercial benefits for employers?

Q.21 To what extent would paid maternity leave create workforce incentives for women to maintain labour force attachment?

Q.22 Are there particular design elements for a paid maternity leave system that would ensure commercial benefits to employers? If so, what are they?

Q.23 Are you aware of any additional international or Australian evidence or studies that document the commercial benefits to employers of paid maternity leave?

Q.24 Do you agree that a paid maternity leave scheme would provide benefits to society?

Q.25 Are there particular design elements for a paid maternity leave scheme that would be crucial for imparting social benefits? If so, what are they?

Q.26 Are you aware of any additional international or Australian evidence or studies that document the social benefits of paid maternity leave?

Part D

Q.27 Should a paid parental leave scheme provide payment to women or both men and women? Why?

Q.28 Should a paid maternity leave scheme provide payments to adoptive parents? Q.29 If paid leave is made available to adoptive parents, should eligibility be limited to parents with adopted children of a particular age?

Q.30 Do you consider that there are stronger reasons for a work related entitlement or a universal payment? Why?

Q.31 Should eligibility for paid maternity leave be limited to women with a minimum length of employment? If so, what length of employment do you consider is appropriate? Would this need to be with a single employer?

Q.32 Do you consider that the same eligibility requirements should apply for both unpaid and paid maternity leave?

Q.33 For how many weeks should paid maternity leave be available?

Q.34 Should the duration of paid maternity leave be extended in special circumstances, such as illness of the mother or child?

Q.35 Do you consider that paid maternity leave should be paid as a fixed amount or a proportion of income? Why?

Q.36 If paid maternity leave were to be a fixed amount what should that amount be? For example:

• unemployment benefits or parenting payment;
• the federal minimum award wage;
• average weekly earnings or a proportion of it;
• women's average weekly earnings or a proportion of it; or
• an individual's full pay or a proportion of it.

Q.37 If paid maternity leave were to be a proportion of income, what proportion should it be and should there be a cap or maximum rate for payments?

Q.38 How do you consider paid maternity leave should be funded? Why?

Q.39 Do you consider that there is a stronger case for funding by government, employers or employees? If so, why? Would a form of combined funding work effectively? How?

Q.40 If employers were to contribute to paid maternity leave, do you think this funding should be provided by individual employers or be spread across all employers?

Q.41 If employers were to contribute to paid maternity leave, should there be any exemptions for certain types of employers (eg. those with less than 20 employees)?

Q.42 Who should be responsible for funding paid maternity leave?

Q.43 Do you support a particular option or model for a paid maternity leave scheme?

Q.44 Do you have any information relevant to costing these models?