He may be opposed to same-sex marriage, but Tony Abbott has no problem with a lesbian couple benefiting from his paid parental leave scheme.
On Melbourne radio, Mr Abbott was confronted by a caller horrified a lesbian couple he knew both wanted to have children at the same time and both wanted to access government-funded parental leave.
David from St Kilda said the women each earned $150,000 a year, so under the coalition's proposed scheme each could be entitled to the maximum $75,000 payout for six months leave.
Asked if this was true, Mr Abbott said: "If they both have kids, fine".
"They're both having kids, and they're both earning the relevant wage," he told ABC radio.
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"They should get their relevant wage for paid parental leave just like they get relevant wage for long service leave, for holiday pay, for sick leave, etcetera.
"The fundamental difference, David, between you and me, is you don't think people on paid parental leave should get paid at their wage, and I do."
The coalition's scheme will cost $5.5 billion a year when fully operational and will be partly funded by a 1.5 per cent levy on about 3000 large businesses.
