More paid baby leave would spur birth rate

Giles and Jane Aubrey say paid parental leave was a big help. Photo / Janna Dixon

The Families Commission will this week recommend the Government significantly beef up paid parental leave.

Commission head Rajen Prasad told the Herald on Sunday the commission's research suggested greater incentives would encourage Kiwis to have more children.

It comes as Laila Harre, the ex-MP who brought New Zealand paid parental leave, is arguing conditions are ripe for the leave period to rise to 12 months.

New Zealand is in the midst of a mini-baby boom that experts say was partly fuelled by child-friendly policies.

Kiwi women had 61,610 babies in the year to June, up 3360, or 5.8 per cent, on the previous year and the biggest baby harvest since 1972, according to Statistics New Zealand. The rise in our fecundity drove the largest population boost by natural increase - when births outnumber deaths - since 1992.

Prasad said the recommendations, if adopted, could turn what may yet be a blip into a lasting boom. The commission will release recommendations to Government on Tuesday for significantly extending and increasing paid parental leave provisions.

Prasad said, "We are pretty certain [the report] will receive very good consideration."

Demographers have cautioned that New Zealand's fertility rate, now hovering around 2.1, would need to be sustained for many years to ensure population replacement.

University of Auckland population studies expert Ward Friesen said policies such as 20 hours of free childcare, Working for Families and paid parental leave have made child-rearing more affordable, which may have helped boost the fertility rate.

He said facilitating mothers' return to work encouraged birth rates.

Currently, parents can claim 14 weeks' paid parental leave at up to $391.28 a week.

Harre said the entitlement was "very minimal" by international standards, and wants to see it extended to 12 months at higher weekly payments. "That sort of length of time is starting to look more realistic."

A year would make it more practicable for fathers to use some of the leave whereas, now, mothers are likely to use up the whole 14 weeks.

Auckland mother Jane Aubrey said paid parental leave was a big help to her and husband Giles when they had Charles and Ella Rose, now 2 years old and 4 months respectively.