Greens raise stakes on paid parental leave The Australian Greens want to boost paid parental leave to a six month, wage-replacement scheme. THE Australian Greens believe their new paid parental leave policy, which is nearly identical to the coalition's, puts pressure on Labor to come up with a better scheme. Under the Greens plan a newborn baby's primary carer would be given their regular wage plus superannuation for the first six months. This would be capped at wages of $100,000 - meaning someone earning more than this would only get $50,000 gross while on parental leave. The scheme 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 on Tuesday. Labor introduced a paid parental leave scheme which 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 have 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 pricetag 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. Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said the Greens and coalition plans were unfair because they gave more taxpayer money to the richest people.