New dad Dale Lander was looking forward to taking a lengthy period of time off work to care for his firstborn son. 9News
, was told he wasn't eligible for the federal government's Parental Leave Pay - which provides 18 weeks' pay at minimum wage and is worth almost $15,000.Instead, Lander was informed he will only qualify for two weeks of Dad and Partner Pay.
"Now, I can only take six weeks off, two of it is paid from the government and the rest of it is unpaid." When Liam was born 12 days ago, Ni Fhlannagain was just a few weeks shy of the two years she needed to spend as a permanent Australian resident before qualifying for Parental Leave Pay. "They said the only way I could qualify was if we could provide a medical reason why my wife was unfit to be the primary carer for my son," he said."They do have the mechanism to make those payments, but the fact that we had to prove my wife was medically unfit, that seemed a bit shit," he said.Ni Fhlannagain said she was also shocked by the situation."It seems really unfair for him not to be able to take time off and get that payment unless I am deemed medically unfit.