Another casualty from the Queensland election debacle appears to be Tony Abbott’s signature paid parental leave (PPL) scheme, which according to Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will be dumped by Mr Abbott at today’s speech to the National Press Club:
[PPL] will be replaced with a revamped families package.
“There will be an emphasis on child care and how we can build and boost female workforce participation,” Mr Frydenberg said.
It was too difficult to proceed with Mr Abbott’s “signature” parental leave policy given the tight budgetary environment.
“The prime minister recognises that he has to be pragmatic about it,” the assistant treasurer said.
That it has taken so long for the Prime Minister to dump PPL is testament to his ringing tin ear and lack of political acumen. From the time the policy was launched, it has been the subject of ridicule from commentators, from the opposition parties, and from within the Coalition itself.
The fact is, PPL was always the wrong policy at the wrong time for the Government, badly undermining its message on “ending the age of entitlement”.
It was also very poor policy, as argued by Ben Phillips from NATSEM:
“Paid parental leave is a nice thing to have but it won’t impact whether you return to the workforce. It won’t make much difference to workforce productivity and it won’t do much for low-income families.
…the more you earn the more you get, so it’s regressive and has no obvious benefit for workforce participation.
Tony Abbott’s stubbornness on PPL also highlights the difference between him and his mentor, John Howard. There is no way that Howard would have clung to PPL for so long in the face of such broad-based opposition. Instead, he would have executed a dignified reversal long ago and not allowed the policy to fester and ultimately be defeated anyway.
PPL is another “captain’s call” that Abbott has gotten wrong, and more evidence of why he is no longer fit to be Prime Minister.
