When Anthony Albanese releases the details of his plan to expand Australia’s paid parental leave, he should take the opportunity to fix the sexism that has been at the heart of the scheme since it was introduced by Julia Gillard more than a decade ago.

On Saturday, the prime minister announced government-funded parental leave will rise from 18 to 26 weeks paid at the minimum wage.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit:Rhett Wyman

The increase will be introduced gradually between 2024 and 2026 with the details to be released at the same time as this month’s budget.

The government says it wants to remove the “economic barriers” to starting and growing a family.

This makes good policy sense given Australia’s dwindling birth rate.

But Albanese told the NSW Labor conference on Saturday he also wants a “parental leave system that empowers the full and equal participation of women” because that’s “good for business, good for families and good for the economy”.

If he’s serious about that, then he needs to do more than just extend the length of paid parental leave.

He needs to remove the sexism that gives millionaires access to paid parental leave while middle-class families miss out.

To get parental leave pay, the government applies an income test.

But the test applies only to the income of the newborn’s mother.

To get parental leave pay the government applies an income test.Credit:iStock

If she earned more than $156,647 in the last financial year, she and her partner get nothing.

It doesn’t matter how much her husband or partner earns.

They could be literally taking home millions, but as long as the mother’s income is less than $156,647, the family can get the government’s money.

In his speech on Saturday, the prime minister said he wanted a “modern policy, for modern families” which will “support dads who want to take time off work to be more involved in those early months”.

Anthony Albanese says he wants a “modern policy, for modern families”.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Amen to that, but if he’s serious about, it he needs to do something about a scheme that gives families with female breadwinners and stay-at-home dads nothing.

To be fair, mothers can currently transfer parental leave payments to their husbands or partners if they are the primary carer.

But again – only if her income is less than $156,647 a year.

We all know (or are) a woman who goes out to work to pay the mortgage while her husband works on his many unproduced screenplays and collects rejection slips from The Monthly.

Parts of Australian society still aren’t comfortable with the female partner earning more than her other half, but the government should not be designing policy based on that prejudice.

Because surely that’s discrimination? You can’t treat someone less favourably because of their sex in Australia!

Well in this case you can and the Human Rights Commission and Administrative Appeals Tribunal have agreed it’s lawful.

The inequality has been there since the scheme was birthed by Julia Gillard in 2011 and during their nine years in government the Coalition frustrated attempts by Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff to correct the anomaly.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Perhaps if the Coalition had been prepared to stand up for professional women when they wanted to start or grow their families, fewer of them would have turned against the government at the last election.

Albanese’s decision to extend parental leave payments to 26 weeks isn’t surprising.

He copped an earful about it at last month’s jobs summit where it was argued the current entitlements hold women back.

The unions were particularly scathing with the ACTU’s Michelle O’Neil complaining we have the second worst paid parental leave scheme in the developed world.

Adding to that pressure was a push from the Greens and teal MPs including Zali Steggall and Zoe Daniel to increase it to six months.

Independent MPs Zali Steggall and Zoe Daniel pushed for an increase in paid parental leave.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The government will no doubt reap the electoral reward for this extension while hoping voters forget the role it played in scuppering Tony Abbott’s plans to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks.

Abbott’s proposals – there were a few iterations – would have tied the rate of payments to women’s actual wages with a maximum payment of $50,000.

Labor opposed Abbott’s plan with then shadow treasurer Chris Bowen describing it as “extravagant, unaffordable” and a “frolic”.

But it also stuck rigidly to Julia Gillard’s policy, in December 2014 describing the 18 weeks she had legislated as a “perfectly good, rational, sensible paid parental leave scheme”.

The press release spruiking Albanese’s expanded scheme states “Equality for women is at the heart of our vision for a fair go at work … Because the full and equal and respectful participation of women in our economy is our nation’s greatest untapped resource.”

If he really means it, the sexist income test has to go.

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