National’s leader Christopher Luxon says National is considering whether to offer the same as Labour’s new policy of partner leave on top of paid parental leave for parents of a new-born child, but affordability was an issue.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins will speak further about the new Labour election policy for four weeks of paid leave for the partners of the main carer of a new baby at an event in Wellington this morning.

The policy would allow a partner to take four weeks leave after the birth of a child, whether or not the main carer was using the 26-weeks paid parental leave scheme.

It would be introduced in stages, starting with two weeks partner leave from July 2024, lifting to three weeks in July 2025 and the full four weeks in July 2026.

It is expected to cost $230m for the first four years – about $70m to $75m a year once the full four weeks are in place.

At the moment, National is proposing giving parents more options in splitting up the 26-weeks paid parental leave by allowing both parents to take a portion of it at the same time. Labour had opposed Willis’ member’s bill to put that in place, saying it would have its own option.

On Tuesday morning, Luxon said partner leave would be good for families and National would look “very closely” at whether it was affordable.

“We would love to do it. We think it would be fantastic for New Zealand families and parents. The key issue is the affordability of it. When you look at what’s happening in the country at the moment, we are over-taxed, we have $73 billion worth of debt, we have deficits and it’s really important that we are prudent with and responsible with taxpayers’ money and that we can actually afford to do it.”

He said there would be more details on National’s plans in an upcoming families policy package.

He also claimed Labour was rushing it out to try to distract from its weekend policy to take GST off fruit and vegetables.

Under Labour’s policy, the partner leave could be taken either at the same time as the 26-weeks, or after that period had ended and Hipkins said it would give parents more flexibility to manage the early months after a child was born.

Luxon said National did still believe in giving parents choice about how they allocated the 26-weeks paid parental leave and believed Labour should have supported that move.