Petition - Increase Paid Parental Leave From 18 to 26 Weeks

The Australian Parental Leave Pay (PLP) policy is currently up to 18 weeks paid at minimum wage. 

The WHO and UNICEF recommendations for breastfeeding of infants, is for children to be exclusively breastfed for 6 months. 

One of the main objectives of the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy: 2019 and Beyond; is to increase the population of babies who are exclusively breastfed to around 6 months of age by 2025, particularly in priority populations and vulnerable groups. 

The 2020 Mothers & Babies Report shows that the percentage of babies fully breastfed at the time of discharge from hospital decreased from 74.9% to 69.1% between 2016 and 2020.

The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Breastfeeding report shows that at 4 months of age 61% of children were exclusively breastfed but at 6 months of age this dramatically drops to only 29% of children who were exclusively breastfeeding. 

There is strong evidence from diverse countries that longer duration of paid maternity leave increases breastfeeding duration and improves maternal health. One of these many studies can be found here.

Increasing access to paid maternity leave will have a direct positive impact on these national and worldwide health objectives. This structural policy change is in the direct ability of the Commonwealth Government to achieve. 

We therefore ask the House to immediately increase of the Australian Parental Leave Pay (PLP) Policy from 18 weeks to 26 weeks in line with the WHO recommendations and Australian national breastfeeding objectives.  

Join us in signing the Petition to Increase Paid Parental Leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks to improve the rates of breastfeeding in Australia.

Please remember, you will be sent a verification email to click to confirm your signing of the petition.

Thank you for your support and together we can bring attention to thi lets make a change to the system together! Please share this petition with your family and friends, the more signatures we can get the more we can show the Australian Government that raising the Parental Leave policy is of benefit to women and families across Australia.
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