Relevance for New Zealand

Currently, New Zealand's provisions for leave include a mix of paid and unpaid parental and carers' leave, and each of the zones of relevant policy discussed in the previous section is the responsibility of a different government agency. The key interventions in the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act are:

• Maternity leave to eligible mothers plus extended leave (up to around child's first birthday) that can be shared between eligible partners;
• Unpaid partners/paternity leave;
• Job protection during a period of parental leave;
• Fourteen weeks' payment to eligible mothers (with either six or 12 months' continuous service with the same employer for at least an average of 10 hours per week) including self-employed mothers (which may be transferred to an eligible partner);
• Criteria providing access for eligible people to entitlements under the Act, based on a degree of workplace attachment (currently access is restricted to employees who have worked for the same employer for either six or 12 months' continuous service with the same employer for at least an average of 10 hours per week).

As can be expected, given the level of diversity in leave policies internationally, New Zealand's arrangements differ from those overseas in some respects that reflect the policy context(s) in which the various measures regarding families with young children have been developed. Various policy objectives are associated with different aspects of New Zealand's leave provisions, rather than a co-ordinated approach focusing on just a few objectives.

Whether New Zealand wishes to pursue such a broad range of simultaneous objectives may need to be considered. Or, to approach the issue from a slightly different angle, it may be possible to pursue the full range of objectives, but narrow the range of contexts in which provisions are delivered. One particularly noticeable way in which many of the countries studied for this report achieve this, is in the conceptualisation of the various policy instruments as connected with leave from work, rather than as separate measures, each focused on its own outcome. This approach implies that economic activity is the normal state of being for adults, and that it is in the state's interest to protect it when parents are faced with the competing but compelling demands of raising a family. For example, New Zealand provides a benefit for eligible people to undertake child-rearing full-time at home (i.e. the DPB) but it is not conceptualised as leave, so the people receiving it are not considered to be employed. As a result, New Zealand may not compare well internationally in employment participation statistics, even though the daily activity patterns of New Zealand parents with young children may not differ all that much from those in many other countries.

At a general level, this review of leave provisions in other countries suggests that in order to maximise outcomes over the range of competing policy objectives, leave policies will be most beneficial to children and parents (with consequent benefits for the economy) if they incorporate:

• Enough time to safeguard maternal health following the birth, and continuity of parental care to promote child health and well-being, with exclusive breastfeeding at until the age of six months, then continuing in the child's life till at least one year;
• A substantial level of income replacement during leave to encourage take-up, to protect families from either the negative effects of economic hardship or the potential negative effects of parental re-entry to employment while children are in their first year;
• Ring-fenced paid leave for fathers - paternity leave and particularly parental leave - to encourage participation of fathers in the lives of their young children as well as alleviating gender inequity in the division of unpaid work in the household as well as in the labour market;
• Flexibility of leave arrangements so that parents can choose what mix of arrangements will suit their family best. Such flexibility could involve taking longer leave but at a reduced rate of payment (or vice versa); taking leave in blocks of time instead of one continuous block, greater opportunities for leave-sharing between partners such as family entitlements for the parents to distribute; working reduced hours during the first year following return to the labour force, preferably with some income compensation; working part time permanently or temporarily; access to extended, unpaid childcare/carers' leave/career break leave;
• Building a stronger association between extended periods of exclusive care for young children with the status of being on leave from the labour market (if not from an individual employer), rather than with the status of being outside the workforce;
• ensuring a seamless continuity of affordable leave and early childhood care arrangements until the child reaches school age, so that there is always a leave option available for parents or a publicly-funded care option available for the child during the first five years.