The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent used a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday to campaign for more-equitable parental leave legislation as the country's birth rate falls, which would bring Australia in line with other OECD countries.
An increase in non-transferable leave for fathers, which would disappear if the dad did not use it, was a vital step as it would take the care load off mums and help balance the gender pay gap, Ms Dent said.
Many dads wanted to take leave but felt they either could not afford it or would fall behind in their careers, she said.
Data released by men's health group Movember in August showed 56 per cent of dads wanted to take more parental leave than they could, and almost 90 per cent reported it allowed them to bond with their child effectively.
"It is a new thing for us to have open public conversations led by dads, with dads, about why parenting matters to them, and that's a big piece of progress that I think would be difficult to undo," Ms Dent said.
But for the plan to work, parental leave needed to be better paid than it is now.
Labor introduced parental leave on a national scale, giving new parents 130 days' worth of leave.
Of that, 20 days are reserved for partners on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, with the remaining days flexible and shareable.
Australia is one of the only OECD countries that does not pay parents a percentage of their salary for parental leave, instead opting for minimum wage, which is less than half the average household earnings.
It also has one of the lowest levels of leave for fathers.
The public service and many private companies have their own policies that offer longer and more comprehensive leave, which Ms Dent said showed appetite for change.
"In every jurisdiction that has introduced specific meaningful leave for dads, it really does disrupt the care balance," she said.
The implementation of a new, national parental leave policy would be almost impossible for successive governments to remove without risking political suicide, Ms Dent said, likening it to a removal of Medicare.
She also called on the federal government to fund childcare centres directly, opening more places and making the cost cheaper for parents.
Early childhood education would be treated like public schools, ensuring all children had access.
Conditions would be attached to the money, requiring fee controls, proper educator wages and transparency.
The budget needed for raising a family has risen by 134 per cent in the time since the time the last baby bonus was introduced just over two decades ago, while household income has gone up by 103 per cent, Ms Dent said.
"Meanwhile, the care work itself has not shrunk by a single hour. Babies still wake at night. Meals still need making. Somebody still has to be at the school gate," she said.
The federal government has been receptive to the plan and had spoken with her team, Ms Dent said.
The speech came just days after Treasury's three-yearly Intergenerational Report forecast Australia will record more deaths than births by 2066.
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