Australia’s government-funded Paid Parental Leave scheme now provides eligible families with up to 26 weeks of pay.

For children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2026, Parental Leave Pay increased from 120 to 130 days. Of those 130 days, 20 – or four working weeks – are generally reserved for the non-primary carer/partner.

On paper, this may seem like a relatively simple expansion of an existing entitlement. In practice, however, it represents something more significant: another deliberate step towards treating the care of a new child as a responsibility to be shared, rather than work that falls primarily to one parent (most often the mother).

But reserving leave for partners doesn’t guarantee they’ll feel comfortable taking it.

 

Instead, for many fathers and other non-birth parents, the decision will still be shaped by workplace expectations rather than any statutory entitlement.

They may fear that taking an extended period away from work will make them appear less committed, disrupt an important project or affect their future opportunities. Similarly, many employers formally support parental leave but continue to treat a partner taking more than a week or two as unusual.

That means the success of the 2026 changes will depend partly on what happens inside individual workplaces. Employers have an opportunity to turn a statutory entitlement into a normal and expected part of working life: and to encourage a more balanced caregiving dynamic that continues long after parental leave ends.

What changed in Australia’s Paid Parental Leave scheme in 2026?

The expansion that took effect from 1 July 2026 is the final stage of a gradual increase in government-funded Parental Leave Pay from 18 to 26 weeks.

For children born or adopted from that date:

The payments can also be taken flexibly within two years of the child’s birth or adoption. This means families don’t necessarily have to divide the entitlement into one uninterrupted block taken by one parent and then the other.

Government Parental Leave Pay is separate from any employer-funded paid parental leave. It’s also different from the unpaid parental leave available to eligible employees under the National Employment Standards.

Depending on their circumstances and workplace policies, parents may be able to combine these different forms of leave.

Having leave available doesn’t mean it will be taken

The four-week reserved portion is intended to give partners a clearer opportunity – and incentive – to spend meaningful time caring for their child. In doing so, it removes one important obstacle to sharing parental leave: those days can no longer simply be absorbed into the birth parent’s entitlement.

But legislation can only go so far. Whether non-birth parents take the leave available to them will also depend on whether their workplace genuinely expects and supports them to do so.

The barriers in this regard generally break down into two key areas:

These concerns may never be stated openly. However, employees notice who takes parental leave, how managers respond and whether senior people genuinely disconnect while they’re away. An organisation can describe itself as family-friendly while its managers continue to assume that mothers will take lengthy periods of leave and fathers will return to work after a week or two, or still be available for calls.

There are, however, some encouraging signs that these expectations are beginning to change.

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, men now account for 20% of employees taking primary or universally available employer-funded parental leave – an increase of three percentage points in a year.

Against this, however, almost half of employers still distinguish between “primary” and “secondary” carers in their parental leave policies.

These labels can reinforce the very division the expanded government scheme is intended to challenge by making unequal caregiving the assumed starting point.

The four weeks reserved under the government scheme send a different message: partners aren’t merely there to provide short-term support to the birth parent. They’re parents and caregivers in their own right.

The habits formed during parental leave can last for years

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that women continue to perform more unpaid work than men, averaging four hours and 53 minutes a day compared with three hours and 52 minutes for men. And, while encouraging partners to take meaningful periods of parental leave will not eliminate that imbalance by itself, it can help establish shared responsibility from the outset.

After all, how parents divide leave following a child’s birth often influences how they divide care long after both have returned to work.

When one parent spends considerably more time providing care from the beginning, they’re more likely to become the person who knows the child’s routines, manages appointments, communicates with childcare and notices when something needs to be done. This means they tend to become the household’s default caregiver, even if it happens gradually and unconsciously.

The same pattern can then shape whose work gets interrupted when a child is sick, childcare is unavailable or an appointment falls during business hours. Even where both parents are employed, the mother is more likely to be the one expected to rearrange their day or take leave.

This can have consequences that go well beyond the occasional day away from work. Repeated interruptions can affect the projects an employee accepts, their availability for meetings and travel and their employer’s willingness to consider them for advancement.

Over time, an unequal division of care at home can contribute to unequal opportunities and earnings at work.

What employers can do to support shared care

Employers obviously can’t determine exactly how individual families divide their caring responsibilities. They can, however, create a workplace in which taking parental and carer’s leave is treated as a normal part of working life for every parent.

This begins with workplace parental leave policy.

Where possible, you should replace “primary” and “secondary” carer categories with gender-neutral parental leave that gives both parents meaningful time away from work. You should also explain how employer-funded leave interacts with the government scheme, rather than leaving employees to navigate the different entitlements themselves.

Line managers and HR teams have a particularly vital role to play. Conversations about parental leave shouldn’t assume that a non-birth parent plans to take only a week or two. Instead, proactively discuss the options available, ask employees what arrangement they’re considering and plan appropriate cover (without subtly signalling that an extended absence would be inconvenient).

If possible, you should also give your employees some visible examples of the policy in effect. When senior fathers and other non-birth parents take substantial periods of leave, genuinely disconnect and return without a career penalty, they demonstrate that the organisation’s support extends beyond the wording of its policy.

That support should continue after parental leave ends by normalising fathers and other non-birth parents using paid personal/carer’s leave when a child is sick or childcare arrangements unexpectedly fall through. Employees should not be questioned more closely, treated as unusually helpful partners or made to feel that caring for their own child is primarily somebody else’s responsibility.

Other practical steps include:

In short…

This year’s changes provide a timely reason to review both your parental leave policies and everyday practices.

The goal shouldn’t simply be making sure employees know that four weeks have been reserved for partners, but creating a workplace in which those employees can use their entitlement without feeling that they’re placing their careers at risk.

Want more?

Catalina Consultants can help you review and update your parental leave policies, communicate entitlements clearly and equip managers to support shared care in practice.

Get in touch with our HR consultants to discuss your workplace.