By Giles Dexter

National has pledged to extend paid parental leave from 26 weeks to 30, if re-elected.

The party is also proposing to revive a policy that allows parents to take some or all of their leave at the same time.

Since 2020, primary carers have been eligible for 26 weeks of paid leave and an additional 26 weeks of unpaid leave.

National has proposed changing the entitlement incrementally, increasing it to 27 weeks in 2027, 28 weeks in 2028, and then 30 weeks in 2029.

Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said the policy modernised paid parental leave, supporting families to give them more financial breathing space while they took on caregiving responsibilities.

"The birth of a child is an expensive time, as families juggle the costs that come with a new baby while their household income is less than when both parents are in paid work," she said.

"Extending paid parental leave to 30 weeks will ease that pressure and give more parents the option to stay home with their baby for longer."

Leave is currently capped at $811 a week. National's policy did not propose an increase to that, but Willis said the government had increased the cap each year.

National is also bringing back a previous policy that would allow parents to split their leave.

The party used an example of instead of one parent taking 30 weeks' leave, both parents could take 15 weeks together, or both parents could take 4 weeks together, then one parent could take 10 weeks, and then the other parent could take 12 weeks.

Willis said the current law was restrictive and got in the way of families doing what they thought was best for their babies.

"Whether a dad wants to support mum in the first few weeks after birth, or two caregivers want to share paid leave in overlapping instalments, the choice should sit with families and not restricted by outdated government rules."

The policy would be funded out of Budget operating allowances, costing $27 million in 2027/28, $56.6m in 2028/29, and $119m in 2029/30.

That larger extension is timed to coincide with the forecast return to surplus.

National claims its long-term intention is to increase the entitlement to 40 weeks, but it has not put a timeframe on when it would want to achieve this.

The policy announcement comes as National MPs rally around their colleague Katie Nimon.

The Napier MP's would-be challenger, Stuart Nash, resigned as a New Zealand First candidate, after coming under fire for labelling Nimon as lazy for taking nine months off after having a baby.

MPs do not get paid parental leave. Nimon confirmed she took ten weeks of parental leave and returned to Parliament after six months.

Nimon, who was present at the press conference, said Nash called her on Thursday to apologise.

"He just offered his apology for offending me," she said.

The party insisted it had not timed the announcement off the back of the saga, but Nimon said her views on the policy would be the same regardless of recent events.

"I've said a lot this week, there is no right way of being a working parent. We just need to give people the choice. This policy that we're putting forward is really going to give people that choice. I stand by that, whether what happened this week happened or not."

In 2023, Willis proposed allowing parents to share their leave entitlement so they could take time off together. The member's bill was voted down by Labour at first reading.

Labour then went on to campaign for four weeks' paid parental leave for partners.

National had put forward a member's bill this term to allow for split parental leave, in the name of East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick.

It had been unable to get the changes into the coalition agreement or pass them as a government this term. Willis said the responsibility for parental leave rested with the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, ACT's Brooke van Velden.

"I think it's a shame that it wasn't prioritised within the minister's programme for this term, and we are really keen as a National Party to see this done."

In 2016, National blocked a plan by Labour to extend paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks, before campaigning on raising it to 22 weeks.

Last month, National announced a policy to continue paying the government KiwiSaver contribution to people on paid parental leave.