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Turnbull Govt 'Out Of Touch' On Paid Parental Leave: Shorten

Labor's fired up about proposed changes to parental leave payments.
Labor's gone on the attack over plans to shake up parental leave payments.
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Labor's gone on the attack over plans to shake up parental leave payments.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has fired a broadside at the Turnbull Government's planned crackdown on parental leave payments amid reports mums-to-be could face the loss of thousands of dollars in payments.

Pregnant women and those planning to conceive are staring down the barrel of losses of up to $12,096 in paid parental leave payments from the start of 2017 under slated government changes to the current system, NewsCorp Australia reports.

The clampdown on so-called "double- dipping" from women receiving payments from both the federal government and workplace parental leave scheme would impact about 80,000 women a year, NewsCorp reports.

Speaking on Sunday, Shorten said the crackdown was typical of an "out-of-touch" coalition government.

"Decreasing the income support for 80,000 new mums, Labor will never vote for this measure," he said in Tasmania ahead of the Burnie 10 road race.

"It is typical of the out-of-touch Turnbull government that on one hand, they're taking a few thousand dollars off new mums who can't afford that but ... they want to give tens of thousands of dollars in tax cuts to millionaires," he said.

"Labor will never vote to punish ordinary people and we call upon Mr Turnbull to reverse his billion-dollar tax cuts for multinationals and his tens of thousands of tax cuts for millionaires."

Social Services Minister Christian Porter reportedly defended the reforms, telling The Courier Mail that the changes were aimed at making the system fairer.

"Currently, a parent earning $140,000 annually can receive a combined government and employer PPL amount of more than $44,000 -- this is more than another parent working a minimum wage will earn in an entire year, and that is not fair,'' a spokesman is quoted as saying.

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