Labor is on its own believing a parental leave plan should be paid at "welfare" rates rather than a worker's real wage, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.
"We don't agree with them, the Greens don't agree with them, much of the union movement doesn't agree with them," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra.
The Australian Greens on Tuesday launched their new paid parental leave policy, which is almost identical to the coalition's, hoping it puts pressure on Labor to come up with a better scheme.
The Greens plan would give a newborn baby's primary carer their regular wage plus superannuation for the first six months.
This would be capped at wages of $100,000 per annum - which works out at $50,000, since the maternity leave covers a six month period only.
It mirrors Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's "signature policy", except his scheme has a wage cap of $150,000.
Greens leader Christine Milne says her plan is cheaper, fairer, turns paid parental leave into a workplace right and covers 90 per cent of working women of child-bearing age.
"We think Tony Abbott's scheme is too generous but we think the government's scheme doesn't go anywhere near far enough," she told reporters in Canberra.
Labor and business groups disagree.
Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said the Greens and coalition plans were unfair because they gave more taxpayer money to the richest people.
Labor's scheme gives primary carers the minimum wage for 18 weeks or about four-and-a-half months.
Greens early childhood spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said Labor should come up with a better plan.
"Tony Abbott has a scheme out there, the Greens have now unveiled theirs, it's up to the government ... to start thinking far more seriously about the support for working mums around this country," she said.
The Greens also embraced Mr Abbott's plan to put a 1.5 per cent levy on businesses with taxable incomes of more than $5 million.
Parliamentary Budget Office costings show this would raise $5.2 billion of the total $7.1 billion price tag for the minor party's scheme.
Senator Milne indicated the Greens might not support the general company tax cut Mr Abbott wants to put in place to offset the levy's impact.
The Australian Industry (Ai) Group says the current scheme is affordable and working well.
Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox says the Greens scheme is largely "photocopied" from the coalition, is unfair to business and would lead to job losses.
"It would also be unfair to the employees, job seekers, consumers and others impacted by the negative employment effects and higher prices which would result from such a big increase in business costs," Mr Willox said in a statement.
Share
