‘Devalues females’: The super rule costing Qld mothers millions

A flaw in the paid parental leave scheme is costing Queensland mothers millions of dollars’ worth of super every year.

Queensland mothers are missing out on millions of dollars’ worth of superannuation payments each year due to a hole in the Government’s paid parental leave scheme.

Whether parents could get reprieve in the future remains unknown, with both major political parties yet to publicly state their plan on paying superannuation on top of existing parental leave arrangements.

Parental leave is one of the only forms of paid leave that has no requirement for super to be paid, with the commonwealth having no super guarantee on its scheme.

Analysis by Industry Super Australia found almost 34,000 Queensland women missed out on $57.5 million worth of super payments in the 2019-20 financial year alone.

According to ISA, missing years of super payments had a dramatic impact on a woman’s final retirement balance, with a woman who spends five years out of the workforce in their late-20s and early 30s to have children being left almost $100,000 worse off.

Melissa Cooke with daughter Navy. Picture: Jerad Williams

Registered nurse Melissa Cooke, 33, of Ashmore on the Gold Coast, said she was surprised to learn women were effectively being disadvantaged to have children.

“I think it just devalues females … the role of caring for children – it’s work, it’s not a free run,” she said.

The Federal Government was expected to unveil a plan to pay super on top of paid parental leave in the budget after it was identified in Treasury’s 2020 Retirement Income Review as a move that would modestly benefit women’s super balances.

Though the change is yet to eventuate, Women’s Economic Security Minister Jane Hume has left the door open, saying the Government was “focused on improving retirement outcomes for women by increasing superannuation coverage and making our system fairer for women and all Australians”.

Federal Labor took parental paid leave reform to the previous election, but is yet to announce its intentions for the upcoming poll.