From 1 January 2011, the Australian Government implemented a new government-funded Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme. The evaluation was conducted in four phases. Findings informed the Government about the outcomes of the scheme, and they assessed the scheme’s likelihood of achieving its longer-term objectives.

The paper examines how the use of child care, the time parents spend with children, and parental wellbeing relate to parental employment. It looks at four themes: the labour force status and job characteristics of parents with young children; patterns of use of child care and how they vary according to parental employment status; the...