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?’