Matthew Taylor, The Centre for Independent Studies Abstract: In February this year the Prime Minister abandoned his controversial Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme that he had taken to two elections. The question of whether abandoning this scheme in favour of the status quo represents better PPL policy depends greatly upon what the agreed objectives of government intervention into PPL are. This presentation will examine the extent to which the stated objectives of taxpayer funded PPL payments such as human capital investment, gender equity and increasing labour supply justify taxpayer funded subsidies. The government’s proposed PPL policy will then be contrasted with current statutory PPL and the prospect of PPL funded through a HECS style Income Contingent Loans scheme in terms of government expenditure and their distributional impacts. Bio: Matt is a Research Fellow in the Economics Program at CIS conducting research on income support policy. He has a Bachelor of Economics with Honours from Monash University with specialisations in economics and econometrics and has expertise in the development of micro-simulation models to assess the fiscal and distributional impacts of alternative tax and income support policies. Prior to joining CIS Matt worked for a number of Universities and Government agencies including the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling and the Australian Institute of Family Studies.  View profile for Matthew Taylor, Details Topic:        Fairer paid Parental leave Speaker:   Matthew Taylor, the Centre for Independent Studies Date:          Tuesday 31 March 2015 Time:         12.15pm for a 12.30pm start Venue:       Ground Floor East Seminar Room, RBA, 65 Martin Place, Sydney Presentations usually conclude between 1.15pm and 1.30pm.