{"id":34019,"date":"2026-06-18T21:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/34019\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T21:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:26:08","slug":"pauline-hansons-views-on-paid-parental-leave-outdated-and-concerning-advocates-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/34019\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson’s views on paid parental leave outdated and concerning, advocates say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pauline Hanson’s openness to discuss a winding back of paid parental leave is concerning and harks back to an Australia that no longer exists, advocates say.<\/p>\n

The One Nation leader questioned “why should business pay [parents] if they’re not at work?” while challenging the pay gap between men and women in her speech at the National Press Club this week.<\/p>\n

The party is willing to consider pulling back paid parental leave, though it has not finalised its policy on workplace relations.<\/p>\n

It is a long-held view of Senator Hanson’s. In a 2017 speech opposing an expanded paid parental leave scheme, she opposed a “welfare handout mentality” because she raised children as a “single mother and held down a part-time job”.<\/p>\n

“I had no assistance, no help from anyone,” she said at the time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Pauline Hanson has been concerned about “welfare handouts” for some time. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy )<\/p>\n

Childcare Choice co-founder Jen Fleming said Senator Hanson’s comments were a bit “back in the day”.<\/p>\n

“It’s been 40 years since Pauline Hanson had children,” the mother of two said.<\/p>\n

“A lot has changed in the economy and with women’s workforce participation.<\/p>\n

“We don’t live in an economy where that is possible anymore. I think it would be the wrong direction for our country.”<\/p>\n

Australia’s paid parental leave scheme provides eligible parents with up to 26 weeks of government-funded pay at the national minimum wage.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jen Fleming says it was ironic the comments come amid discussions about birth rates in Australia. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The scheme, which costs an estimated $5 billion annually, allows parents to share the leave as they choose and grants them superannuation on top of the payment.<\/p>\n

“It’s a scary thought to think that may become a reality in this country, that paid parental leave would go backwards,” Ms Fleming said.<\/p>\n

Worker entitlement cuts<\/a><\/p>\n

One Nation’s newly named “treasury spokesman” Barnaby Joyce says the party is prepared to cut worker entitlements to safeguard small businesses struggling to deal with inflation and high power prices.<\/p>\n

Ms Fleming, whose organisation calls on the government to expand subsidised childcare options<\/a> beyond childcare centres, said there was also irony in paid leave being up for debate while others debated how to lift Australian birth rates.<\/p>\n

“But if we’re not going to support women when they have those babies, with policies like paid parental leave, how is that going to happen? You can’t have one without the other,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I appreciate there are lots of budget constraints, but there have to be other places where the government can find savings, not at the detriment of women and savings.”<\/p>\n

Families often need multiple incomes<\/p>\n

Tegan Gilchrist, campaign director for advocacy group The Parenthood, said about 80 per cent of families relied on early learning and paid parental leave.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tegan Gilchrist says it’s difficult to raise a child on one income. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

She said Australia should continue to push for 12 months of paid parental leave to bring it closer to that of comparable wealthy countries like Denmark and Canada.<\/p>\n

“You have to look at the broader context for families. We’re in an economy where it takes most families two incomes to put a roof over people’s heads and food on the table,” Ms Gilchrist said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not affordable to have a baby on one income. That’s why paid parental policies are really important.”<\/p>\n

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Senator Hanson’s speech attacked abortion rights, childcare and paid parental leave.<\/p>\n

“One Nation is coming for women in this country,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They don’t want to help us both do our jobs and be mothers.”<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the Liberal Party had no plan to change paid parental leave and that One Nation’s policy was yet to be outlined.<\/p>\n

“This is the problem with what we heard \u2014 there was a lot of detail that wasn’t clear,” he said.<\/p>\n

“What is needed right now is a credible plan.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson’s openness to discuss a winding back of paid parental leave is concerning and harks back to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[468,22,21,1955,8707,1926],"class_list":["post-34019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-angus-taylor","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-one-nation","tag-parental-leave","tag-pauline-hanson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}