I am an employer and i got all this information from the government...
The $5000 lump sum baby bonus has been scrapped. However, if you are unemployed or casually employed you are still entiled to the $5000 in fortnightly installments. If you have a maternity leave payment clause in your employment contract like alot of government jobs already do, then you are not entitled to the new maternity leave. My friend is a detective and she gets 6 weeks at full pay and a further 20 weeks at 1/2 pay.

With the new maternity leave, your employer will get the minimum wage (approx $540pw) put into their account and they administer it to you as they would normally, eg, weekly, fortnightly or monthly. You don't pay tax on it but you also don't get any super during that time either.

Unless it is in your partners contract, like others have said, they are entitled to 2 weeks depending on their award it MAY be paid but it also may not be. it mainly just means that with adequate notice, their employer has to say yes.

The best thing is to get them to save up their holidays and have a whole 4 or 5 weeks off with you.

I hope this helps....