BIG business has universally condemned a plan by Tony Abbott to hit the top 3200 companies with a $2.7 billion tax rise to fund a national system of six months' paid parental leave.
Breaking a promise that no election policies would be funded by new or increased taxes, the Opposition Leader proposed yesterday to fund his parental leave scheme by increasing corporate tax by 1.7 per cent on all taxable company income of more than $5 million.
All primary carers would receive their full salary for 26 weeks, capped at salaries up to $150,000. For example, someone earning $40,000 a year would receive $20,000 over the six months while someone on $150,000 would receive $75,000.
The scheme aims to outdo Labor's $260 million taxpayer-funded policy, which would pay all primary carers the minimum wage of $544 a week for 18 weeks.
Mr Abbott conceded that he once opposed paid maternity leave but had changed his views after watching friends and family trying to juggle careers and parenthood ''and considering the options I would like for my own daughters''.
He said businesses could partly offset the tax rise by abandoning any maternity scheme they might have now. ''I don't expect anyone to cheer about having to pay more but I expect that even people … in big business think of themselves as citizens as well as business people,'' he said.
The government is about to introduce legislation for its scheme, which begins on January 1. That is now uncertain, and the Minister for Families, Jenny Macklin, accused Mr Abbott of floating an unrealistic policy that would sow uncertainty and alter people's life decisions. ''He's not serious and families have the right to be furious,'' she said.
Heather Ridout, the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, slammed the proposal as aiming high but being unrealistic. ''It is poor policy and the sort of policy you have when you're not serious about having a policy,'' she said.
A spokesman for the Business Council of Australia, Scott Thompson, said it would not support the policy.
Most big businesses already had paid parental leave schemes and the cost of a comprehensive policy should be shared between business and government.
He said higher business taxes deterred investment and putting a levy on businesses would leave the policy at the mercy of the economic cycle.
The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Anderson, said the policy was wrong and unfair.
''It doesn't make sense for one business to be funding the wages of another business when that second business's employees are off on maternity or parental leave,'' Mr Anderson said.
The national chairwoman of the Women's Electoral Lobby, Eva Cox, expressed scepticism about Mr Abbott's conversion to paid parental leave, but welcomed talk about a more generous scheme.
''The thing I would agree with him is that the government's plan is Mickey Mouse,'' Ms Cox said.
The president of the ACTU, Sharan Burrow, said Mr Abbott was an unreconstructed traditionalist attempting to court the female vote.
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