The Albanese government is at loggerheads with key crossbencher David Pocock after the independent senator demanded it reduce red tape for small business by streamlining the payment of parental leave to employees.

With small business already anxious about the extra complexities to be imposed by the government’s second wave of industrial relations laws, Senator Pocock, with the support of the opposition, wants the government department Services Australia to administer the parental leave payment directly to employees.