Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has reaffirmed his commitment to the Coalition's expanded paid parental leave scheme, saying he "absolutely" supports the policy.

Internal dissent about the policy went public this morning, with federal Liberal backbencher Alex Hawke calling it an "albatross" that must be "scrapped".

Both Mr Hockey and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott have dismissed the comments, with Mr Hockey saying it was just "one backbencher going off like this".

The current policy would give a woman her full wage for 26 weeks, capped at $150,000, including superannuation contributions - making it one of the most generous schemes in the world.

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Big business would foot the bill through a 1.5 per cent levy on companies with taxable incomes of more than $5 million.

Mr Hawke, who has written about his concerns for the conservative Institute of Public Affairs, says the scheme, which "has crept into our policy", should be revisited in light of the continuing budget revenue write-downs.

"Now would be a very good time to revisit this policy with a view to scrapping it before the next election, so we can go to the election without this albatross around the neck of the party," he said.

But Mr Abbott, who has labelled the measure a "signature policy", has dismissed the call.

"One backbench member of Parliament has written an article saying that he doesn't like the scheme. Fair enough, he's a backbench member of Parliament," he told BayFM in Geelong this morning.

"But this has been our policy now for more than three years. It's a very important sign that we get it when it comes to the modern families.

"I think this is a sign that we are prepared to move with the times and I'm totally committed to it and so is the party."

Mr Hockey has echoed his leader's sentiments, saying the party's "commitment is very real".

"It went through the party room, it's been ratified by the party room which Mr Hawke is a member of," he said.

"There will be the odd critic, but when you have good policy - which we took to the last election, it wasn't an accident, we took it to the last election - to suggest that this came out of the blue, for crying out loud, it's been going on for years."

However, Mr Hockey would not speculate on whether the 1.5 per cent company tax cut, which the Coalition took to the last election to offset the levy, would also survive as Opposition policy.

Last month, Mr Abbott would only say he was committed to a "modest reduction in company tax".

Sorry, this video has expired Coalition committed to leave scheme: Hockey

Mr Hawke, who is the federal member for the north-west Sydney seat of Mitchell, says it is time to revisit the idea and he believes most of his Liberal party room colleagues would agree.

"This policy is not signature policy of the Coalition. Economically this is ill-suited I think to an economic liberal agenda," he told AM.

"I can only advocate for what I believe in and for what I believe most of the Coalition believes in, and that is good economic policy.

"And the question is - is this good economic policy at this time? And my answer is no."

Not surprisingly, his leader disagrees.

"Well look, it's fully funded. It's, yes, a levy that will be paid by big business, but this is an economic reform," Mr Abbott said.

"It is an economic reform and if we want a stronger economy, we've got to keep in our economy some of its most productive workers. We can't really afford to lose so many highly capable women in the prime of life from the workforce."

'Key policy'

Senior Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says the party is behind Mr Abbott and the parental leave policy.

"The Coalition enthusiastically embraced Tony Abbott's paid parental leave scheme," he told Sky TV.

"I couldn't be more enthusiastic about it ... if I'd written it myself. It will be our policy for the next election."

Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull says he doubts the scheme would ever be shelved.

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"This is a key policy of Tony Abbott's and it is something that we have as part of our policy and I don't see any probability or likelihood of seeing that policy shelved," he told ABC NewsRadio.

"Tony is very committed to it," he added.

Mr Abbott says the current government-funded scheme is an "entry level" measure.

'Rolled gold'

Introduced by the Labor government in January 2011, the scheme pays a baby's primary carer the minimum wage, currently $606.50 a week, for 18 weeks and has, so far, benefitted 270,000 people.

The Labor government has scoffed at the Coalition's policy, saying the "rolled gold" scheme is unlikely to ever become reality.

"Tony Abbott wants to introduce a rolled gold scheme that will see very wealthy women get $75,000 to have a baby while at the same time slashing the money going to low and middle-income families when he abolishes the school kids bonus," Families Minister Jenny Macklin said.

The Government has pointed to a particular comment from Mr Abbott when he was a minister in the Howard government, that paid maternity leave would happen "over this government's dead body".

Last month shadow assistant treasurer Matthias Cormann cast doubt on the scheme, telling a mining forum in Brisbane that the Coalition had not finalised its funding plan.

Those doubts were quashed by Mr Abbott, who said at the time that he wanted "this important reform to be one of the things for which an incoming Coalition government is remembered".

The policy was first announced by Mr Abbott as he emerged from a luncheon event on International Women's Day in 2010.

Business groups agree with the intention of the policy - to increase workforce participation - but do not want to fund it.

"We'd prefer not to see a tax impost on business," said Greg Evans, the chief economist for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"We would hope to talk to the Coalition about how that policy can be implemented without necessarily that additional impost on business."

Greens Leader Christine Milne says a middle ground should be found between the Coalition's policy and Labor's.