One in five mums haven’t made up their minds about the major political parties. Picture: iStock

THE votes of tens of thousands of working mums are up for grabs, with new polling revealing almost one in five women juggling a career and kids cannot decide who to vote for at this year’s federal election.

Uncertainty over paid parental leave arrangements, and delays in finalising childcare reforms, are all contributing to mums being unable to make up their minds about how they will vote.

A new ReachTEL poll, conducted for advocacy group The Parenthood and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, has revealed 18.5 per cent of working mums would not know who to vote for if the federal election were held tomorrow.

Jo Briskey, executive director of The Parenthood, urged the Turnbull government to take its unpopular cuts to parental leave off the table, unless it wanted to risk a backlash from working mums and mums-to-be at the polling booth.

DOUBLE DISSOLUTION JULY ELECTION STILL AN OPTION

Paid parental leave arrangements are front of mind for many voting mums. Picture: istockSource:Supplied

“Paid parental will be a key election decider for many mums — many voted for Tony Abbott on his promise to provide six months of full paid maternity leave, this election will be no different.” Ms Briskey said.

While working mum Rachel Green, from Sydney, is yet to decide who she will vote for at the next election, she says the paid parental leave policies of both major parties will impact her choice.

“Since becoming a mum something that is more important to me than ever before is being able to look after my family in the best possible way,” Ms Green, who has a 10-month-old son, said.

“Things like paid parental leave are really important to me, particularly if I want to have more kids in the future and it is an incredibly backward step to be undoing the existing PPL scheme,” she said.

Childcare reforms are also a critical issue for working mums. Picture: istockSource:istock

The federal government is trying to legislate changes to the parental leave scheme, which stops so-called ‘double dipping’ -- where mums can access both employer-paid and government-funded parental leave scheme — but a number of key Senate crossbenchers including Jacquie Lambie, Nick Xenophon and Glenn Lazarus have expressed opposition to the changes.

The ReachTEL poll comes as a separate survey from the nation’s largest childcare provider, Goodstart Early Learning, revealed almost 40 per cent of parents say they would reduce the hours they have their children in care, if their childcare subsidies are cut.

“The analysis found that affordability of childcare remained a significant concern, particularly for working families,” Goodstart’s advocacy manager John Cherry said.