worker funded maternity leave proposed

AAP

A plan for a national paid maternity scheme funded partly by a weekly levy imposed on workers has public support, says the social policy adviser who designed the scheme.

Julia Perry, a former senior federal public servant, will present her proposal on Tuesday to a Productivity Commission inquiry into paid maternity leave.

The $3.5 billion scheme would be funded by the commonwealth, employers and employees and allow new mothers to take six months' leave at full pay.

Under the scheme, taxpayers would fork out 0.5 per cent of their gross annual salary.

For a worker earning about $50,000 a year, that would amount to $5.70 a week.

Ms Perry says she commissioned a Newspoll last year to determine the popularity of her scheme.

"We asked people if they were in favour of paid maternity leave...75 per cent said they were," Ms Perry told the Fairfax Radio Network.

"Then we asked them if they were in favour of it being shared by employers workers and the commonwealth...78 per cent of respondents (agreed)."

Ms Perry says her scheme is preferable to the 14-week paid leave option proposed by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

"Going back to work and putting babies into childcare too early, at 14 weeks, is not very good for babies and has long-term effects on how functioning they are."

The social benefits of a six-month paid maternity scheme would also be huge.

"There is an argument that although families bear most of the costs of children...there's a social benefit that goes much beyond individual families.

"We really need women in the workforce. That's the way to keep the current propriety...so we've got to have some system that actually recognises women's role."

The proposal is supported by the Australian Families Association, which says the scheme has merit and should be considered by the Productivity Commission.

"The levy is paid by all people who are taxpayers according to the particular tax rate that they are paying, and I think that probably is a fair way of doing it," association spokesman Damien Tudehope told Sky News.

The federal government had a responsibility to implement a scheme that encourages women to have babies if it moves to means test the $5,000 baby bonus.

"If we are going to get a proposal in the budget next week that the baby bonus goes, we've got to replace it by something that says we want people certainly to have children.

"Paid maternity leave by way of this sort of levy certainly has some merit and should be debated."

The Productivity Commission's inquiry will deliver a report to the Rudd government early next year.