Labor ditches policy of adding superannuation to Commonwealth-funded parental leave

Anthony Albanese wouldn't confirm or deny Labor's paid parental leave position when asked on Thursday. (ABC News: James Carmody)

Federal Labor has ruled out paying superannuation on Commonwealth-funded parental leave if it wins the May election. 

It's been unclear in recent weeks what Labor would decide, with senior party officials as late as yesterday insisting it was still under consideration.

But Shadow Minister for Women, Tanya Plibersek, on Friday said Labor was no longer committed to the policy in its first term of government. 

"It's not a policy we're taking to this election; it's important we continue to see reform to paid parental leave," she told the ABC.

"It's Labor that introduced paid parental leave, we want to see improvements in it over time.

"It isn't possible for us to fix every problem that this government has created, including the problem of the superannuation pay gap, in our first term of government."

Tanya Plibersek says Labor is unable to promise the policy in its first term, if elected in May. (ABC News: Hugh Sando)

At the 2019 election, Labor committed to paying superannuation on 18 weeks of paid parental leave offered by the Commonwealth, a move that would help bridge the superannuation gender gap and improve retirement savings for women who take time away from work to have children.

A government review into retirement income found the policy would cost $200 million, but the Coalition confirmed earlier in the year it would not adopt it.

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week said a final decision hadn't been made.

"We've been consulting with stakeholders and we've said the same thing privately that we say publicly, which is that this is a very good policy idea and we need to weigh it up against a whole range of other great policy ideas," he said.

"We haven't come to a concluded view on that. We consider it to be very important. We've taken that policy to elections in the past, but we need to weigh it up against all the other priorities."

When asked on Thursday, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wouldn't be drawn on Labor's position.

"We announce our policies during the campaign, we haven't announced that as a policy," he said.

"We support paid parental leave, we can't commit to everything that we committed to during the last campaign."