Most private sector employees in Victoria: national rules
Most private sector employees use the national unpaid parental leave rules. Services Australia runs the separate government payment scheme. Your employer's policy can provide additional paid leave.
- Unpaid leave. Up to 12 months, extendable to 24 with your employer's agreement, after 12 months continuous service. Up to 130 days of it can be taken one day at a time.
- Parental Leave Pay. $200.94 a day before tax in 2026-27. 130 days for the family for babies born on or after 1 July 2026, 20 reserved for the partner.
- Notice. Tell your employer in writing at least 10 weeks before your leave starts.
- Reserved for the partner, 20
- Reserved for the birth parent, 20
- To share, 90
Where VIC does matter: if the VIC government employs you
Victorian Public Service employees covered by the VPS Enterprise Agreement 2024. Other Victorian public sector agreements (health, education, police) have their own clauses.
Partner, paid
4 weeks
Primary carer, paid
16 weeks
Plus up to
12 weeks
Instrument. Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024, clause 62.
Qualifying period. None. There is no minimum continuous service for paid parental leave under the 2024 agreement.
The extra weeks. Up to 12 weeks Additional Paid Secondary Caregiver leave when you take over as primary carer and your partner has gone back to work, used within 78 weeks of the birth.
The catch. The headline is 4 weeks, but the 12 week Additional Paid Secondary Caregiver leave turns it into 16 if you become the primary carer later. Most dads never claim it.
- Up to 52 weeks total parental leave, paid and unpaid combined, extendable to 104 weeks.
- Pre-natal leave: up to 7.6 hours paid per pregnancy for an employee whose spouse is pregnant, to attend routine appointments (clause 62.7).
- Secondary caregiver leave can start up to one week before the expected birth.
This is paid by your employer and sits on top of Parental Leave Pay. You can usually take both, the paid weeks from the department and the government days, back to back or overlapping, within the rules of each.
What people in VIC get wrong
- Treating government Parental Leave Pay, unpaid leave from work and an employer's paid policy as a single entitlement.
- Assuming the birth parent can take all 130 paid days. 20 are reserved for the partner and are lost if unused.
- Missing the 10 week written notice, then finding the employer can push back on the dates.
Read more about unpaid parental leave and government pay rates.
Public sector detail source checked 11 September 2026. The government pay rate is reviewed each 1 July; the day allowance depends on the birth or adoption date.