With regards to the company that I work for (a national one) in our parental leave booklet it says that you can take a combination of annual leave & unpaid leave for your maternity leave but that it still can't exceed 52 weeks in length.

And as far as I know in regards to the public holidays the company I work for doesn't pay public holiday rates but you will still get normal pay rate if you were rostered to work them. Don't know if this helps you or not.