Teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public sector workers across the State will be encouraged to share childcaring responsibilities between partners under an overhaul of the NSW Government\u2019s paid parental leave scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From October, there will no longer be a distinction between a \u2018primary\u2019 or \u2018secondary\u2019 carer, meaning every mother and father in the public sector will be entitled to at least 14 weeks\u2019 paid parental leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Government will also offer parents an additional 2 weeks\u2019 \u2018bonus leave\u2019 if paid parental leave entitlements are more equally shared between partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the new initiatives in the 2022-23 NSW Budget were part of the government\u2019s ongoing commitment to supporting the needs of modern families across NSW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile most parents across Australia are entitled to paid primary parental leave, only 12 per cent of those who take it are men,\u201d Mr Perrottet said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSupporting all parents to spend more precious days with their newborn children helps them form bonds that last a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NSW Government will also expand the window in which public servants can take paid parental leave from one year to two years after birth, and extend paid parental leave to long-term or permanent foster carers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Treasurer Matt Kean said as the largest employer in Australia, the NSW Government hopes that private companies and other governments will follow its lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChildren don\u2019t see their parents as \u2018primary carers\u2019 or \u2018secondary carers\u2019 \u2013 just as mums or dads,\u201d Mr Kean said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEncouraging more dads to take up parental leave is crucial to supporting all parents to be able to choose to have a career, have a family or have both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister for Women Bronnie Taylor said strong parental leave entitlements play a major role in supporting women\u2019s economic opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese changes to our parental leave offerings will encourage more equal sharing of caring responsibilities right from the start of a child\u2019s life,\u201d Mrs Taylor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister for Employee Relations Damien Tudehope said he hopes as many parents as possible take up the opportunity to spend time with their young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe NSW Government understands the needs of young families and the benefits to productivity and performance that can be unleashed by supporting employees to balance parenthood with paid work,\u201d Mr Tudehope said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u2018bonus leave\u2019 scheme is one of the first of its kind in Australia and will apply where each parent (including parents employed outside the public sector) takes at least 12 weeks\u2019 parental leave and exhausts any paid parental leave offered by their employers. Single parents will be entitled to the full 16 weeks of paid parental leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The paid parental leave reform comes following the NSW Government\u2019s recent announcement that it will start offering workers in the public sector five days\u2019 fertility leave, recognising the time demands of IVF and other reproductive treatments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public sector workers across the State will be encouraged to share childcaring responsibilities between partners under an overhaul of the NSW Government\u2019s paid parental leave scheme. From October, there will no longer be a distinction between a \u2018primary\u2019 or \u2018secondary\u2019 carer, meaning every mother and father in the public sector … Continue reading “NSW sets a new standard on parental leave”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16982,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16981\/revisions\/16982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}