You can sign the attached petition to help ensure that after many decades of campaigning, Australia finally joins the ranks of most countries which have a paid parental leave scheme.
Last week, the Federal Government introduced a bill into Parliament for 18 weeks paid parental leave. This is an important first step in delivering adequate paid parental leave and a huge achievement in itself for those who have campaigned for it for so long.
However, there is some uncertainty regarding the opposition parties’ response to the bill and there remains concern as to whether it will be supported.
In order to make it clear that the general public expects a fully operational scheme to be up and running by 1 January 2011, the ACTU will present a petition to parliament in early June. So we’re asking as many people as possible to do the following three things to make sure it has maximum impact:
- Print the attached petition
- Get your friends or workmates to sign the petition - pass it around and leave it on your tearoom table or your noticeboard for people to sign.
- When you’ve collected as many signatures as you can by Friday this week, put them in a stamped envelope and mail them to:
Paid parental leave petition
Unions NSW
Level 3, Trades Hall
4 Goulburn St
SYDNEY NSW 2000
They need to be mailed because under parliamentary rules for petitions, no photocopied (or faxed) signatures are allowed. We need to collate them by 26th May, so please put them in the mail by Friday this week.
For more information click here.