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Approval of changes to paid parental leave

1 Nov 2016

Q. Working women currently receive taxpayer-funded paid parental leave (PPL) of $641 a week (the minimum wage) for up to 18 weeks. The Government has proposed women who can access employer-sponsored PPL schemes will lose all or part of their taxpayer-funded PPL. Do you approve or disapprove of this proposal?

  Total   Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote other   Males Fem-ales Aged 18-34 Aged 35-55 Aged 55+   May 2015
TOTAL Approve 55%   52% 66% 33% 63%   57% 52% 40% 56% 73%   56%
TOTAL Disapprove 32%   38% 24% 57% 25%   30% 35% 45% 29% 22%   27%
Strongly approve 19% 19% 22% 8% 28% 20% 19% 9% 21% 31% 25%
Approve 35%   33% 44% 25% 35%   37% 33% 31% 35% 42% 31%
Disapprove 19%   22% 15% 23% 14%   19% 18% 24% 18% 13% 14%
Strongly disapprove 14%   16% 9% 34% 11%   11% 17% 21% 11% 9% 13%
Don’t know 13% 10% 10% 10% 12% 13% 13% 16% 14% 7% 18%

Just over half (55%) of Australians approve of the planned changes to paid parental leave. This result has not changed since May 2015.

Lib/Nat voters (66%) were even more likely to approve of the change. Greens voters were far less likely (33%). Males (57%) were only slightly more likely than females (52%) to approve. Older Australians were far more likely than younger Australians to approve of this change; 73% of those aged 55+ compared to 56% of those aged 35-54 and just 40% of those aged 18-34 approve.

Note: May 2015 wording of question was ‘Working women currently receive taxpayer-funded paid parental leave (PPL) of $641 a week (the minimum wage) for up to 18 weeks. In the Federal Budget, the Government has proposed women who can access employer-sponsored PPL schemes will lose all or part of their taxpayerfunded PPL. Do you approve or disapprove of this proposal?’

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