A logic failure

Jo Moir at Stuff reports:

Evelyn Moody went back to work within seven weeks of each of her three children being born.

She had no choice, she said – having children was an expensive business, and she was the primary earner.

“I went back to work when each of my children were between 6 and 7 weeks old, after collecting every kind of leave I could scrape together,” she told MPs hearing submissions on a bill to extend paid parental leave from 14 weeks to 26.

The present provisions were not enough to keep mothers at home, and an extension would go a long way towards easing the financial burden, she told Parliament’s government administration select committee.

Umm, if she went back to work at seven weeks, then extending paid parental leave from 14 to 26 weeks will not have changed her situation in any way.

She should be arguing for paid parental leave to be at a higher level, rather than for it to be longer.

Once fully implemented, an extension of paid parental leave to 26 weeks would cost $145 million a year. That’s money we simply don’t have.