Paid Parental Leave – a necessity, or an expensive luxury?

PAID parental leave would cost taxpayers half as much as the Government’s key economic adviser says; and would create an extra 8900 jobs by stimulating the economy. In a paper to be released today, the Australia Institute has challenged the Productivity Commission’s costings for a publicly funded parental leave scheme and warned of the economic costs of stalling on the measure. The Australia Institute’s analysis has put the cost to government of paying a parent a minimum wage for 18 weeks to care for their newborn at $225 million, well down on the Productivity Commission’s estimate of $450million. What do you think?  Can our economy carry an additional deficit of $2.25 billion in these challenging times?  Is paid parental leave a necessity, or an expensive luxury, in light of the hundreds of thousands Australians struggling to make ends meet on aged, sole parent and disability pensions?  Could the money be better spent elsewhere? You can read the full story from The Australian newspaper here: http://tinyurl.com/cv2kmu