Labor to keep paid parental leave scheme

New mums will be able to claim maternity leave from their employers as well as the government scheme if Labor wins the federal election.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says working mums should be able to access both schemes and don't deserve to be labelled `double dippers' by the coalition.

"I don't share the view of Malcolm Turnbull that working mums who take paid parental leave are rorters, fraudsters or double dippers," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

A year ago on Mother's Day the then Liberal treasurer Joe Hockey said claiming both schemes was `double dipping' and the government put forward legislation to limit maternity leave to just one source of income.

That has yet to become law, but last week's budget confirmed the government's commitment to a crackdown on paid parental leave `double-dipping'.

Mr Shorten said the budget locked in cuts that would affect up to 80,000 families with new babies each year, who would be as much as $11,800 better off under Labor than they would be under the Liberals.

A preliminary estimate by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office says it will cost $1.4 billion over the four-year budget estimates.

Under the scheme introduced by Labor in 2011, new parents can access 18 weeks' pay at the national minimum wage plus any paid parental leave their employers offer.

Labor says more than 730,000 families have accessed extra support under the scheme and three-quarters of those parents are on incomes of less than $70,000 a year.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation said Labor's promise to reverse the coalition's changes means working women will still be entitled to a fair paid parental leave scheme, which maximises the time they are able to spend with their newborns.

Paid parental leave was Labor's first policy announcement of the eight-week election campaign, just hours before Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to visit the governor-general seeking a July 2 double-dissolution election.