National has promised to extend paid parental leave from 26 weeks to 30 weeks by 2029 if it is returned to government, launching the policy through leader Christopher Luxon and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis at an indoor playground on Saturday.
The party says it would lift the entitlement to 27 weeks in its first Budget, with the remaining increases spread across the following two Budgets until it reaches 30 weeks in 2029. National has also set out a longer-term goal of pushing the entitlement to 40 weeks, or about nine months, although it has not attached a date to that ambition.
Willis, who framed the announcement as a cost-of-living measure, said the extra weeks would give families more room to breathe after a new baby arrives. “The birth of a child is an expensive time, as families juggle the costs that come with a new baby while their household income is less than when both parents are in paid work,” she said. “Extending paid parental leave to 30 weeks will ease that pressure and give more parents the option to stay home with their baby for longer.”
According to RNZ, National would introduce the initial four-week extension gradually so it could be funded while the party worked to return the Government’s books to surplus and reduce debt. The policy is costed at about $27 million in 2027/28, $56.6 million in 2028/29 and $119 million in 2029/30, drawn from Budget operating allowances rather than new taxes or charges.
Alongside the extra weeks, National wants to remove a rule that stops parents from taking their leave at the same time. Under the proposal, as reported by Chris Lynch Media, parents could share the entitlement in any order or combination. Both could take 15 weeks together, for example, or spend four weeks at home as a couple before splitting the remaining leave between them. Current rules prevent parents from taking paid parental leave at the same time or in overlapping periods.
“These outdated restrictions are getting in the way of families doing what they think is best for their babies,” Willis said. “The choice should sit with families and not be restricted by outdated government rules.”
National’s spokesperson for women, Nicola Grigg, said allowing parents to take leave together would help in the weeks straight after a birth. “Some mums might need extra help from their partner after a difficult birth, and allowing parents to take paid parental leave together means their partner can be home while they recover,” Grigg said.
The package also carries a retirement-savings component. National is promising to pay KiwiSaver contributions on behalf of parents while they are receiving paid parental leave, even when those parents are not contributing themselves, at the default rate from 1 July 2027. The party has pitched this as a way to chip away at the so-called motherhood penalty, the lifetime savings gap that opens up when a parent, usually the mother, steps back from paid work to raise children. Analysis published by B2B News notes that a large share of parents currently miss out on employer KiwiSaver contributions during their time off, which compounds over a working life.
National is also promising to protect proposed changes to holiday-pay rules so that parents are not left worse off when they take annual leave after returning to work. Annual leave payments are currently calculated using a worker’s average weekly earnings over the previous 12 months, which can drag down holiday pay following a stretch of parental leave.
The announcement lands on top of a rate rise that already took effect this winter. As 1News reported, the maximum weekly paid parental leave payment rose from $788.66 to $811.05 from 1 July, in line with movement in average weekly earnings. National’s policy would extend how long parents can draw that payment rather than change the weekly amount.
Labour, which built the modern paid parental leave scheme up to its current 26 weeks over successive terms in office, has so far declined to attack the extension. Leader Chris Hipkins would not criticise or promise to match the plan, and instead argued National had been “all over the show” on family policy, pointing to the party’s earlier focus on trimming KiwiSaver settings. The New Zealand Herald and Stuff both reported the announcement as part of National’s wider election platform, which has increasingly centred on families and household budgets.
The promise sharpens a contest that has been running quietly for years. Paid parental leave has crept upward under governments of both colours, from a handful of weeks in the early 2000s to the current six months, and both major parties now treat it as settled ground worth expanding rather than trimming. What separates them heading into the election is timing, cost and the smaller design choices, such as whether parents can be at home together and how retirement savings are handled during leave.
With the election drawing closer, parental leave joins the growing list of household-budget pledges that will help decide how families vote. You can compare where the parties stand on this and other issues, and see which ones line up with your own views, using our voting tool.
Would 30 weeks make a real difference for your family, or should the money go somewhere else? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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