Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier today in the House, I talked about unicorn times in parliament. Sometimes in this place we have the opportunity to do speeches over separate days, weeks, months and even years. Occasionally, you get to do your speech during three separate sessions, which is my lucky moment today. The thing that I would say is that this policy on paid parental leave is not a unicorn moment; this is deliberate design by the federal Labor party. It's deliberate design. This is because we recognise that working families need more help and support, and we need to make sure that there are more choices available for working families, and that's exactly what this policy does.

One of the things I recognise with working families is that previously people needed to think about different arrangements to work out 'Do I care, or do I work?' Particularly when there's a new child in the family, this is a really challenging time. One of the things we want to do is give families more choice to work out what's the right option for them. For some people who have been in Australia for multiple generations, they have access to things like family members to help support them working. But not everybody has access to that. The thing that we want to do is provide people with more choices, and we should make sure that our systems help facilitate the balance for all parents and children. What this does is it leads to better outcomes for families, better outcomes for parents, better outcomes for children, but also better outcomes for the whole economy.

Working should not be a barrier to parenting, and similarly parenting should not be a barrier to working. What this bill does is it helps break down those barriers. It extends paid parental leave by increasing the scheme to 26 weeks by 2026. These reforms are another example of the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitment to improving the lives for Australian families. The government is committed to providing each parent four weeks or reserved leave from 2026 when the scheme is fully implemented. This is a policy that will encourage shared care. It is a strong signal that both parents play an important role in caring for their children. These changes will benefit mums, benefit dads and benefit kids.

One of the things that we recognise is that absent fathers are challenging and make it difficult for children, and they can actually cause long-term relationship problems. It's really important that we give fathers and male carers the opportunity to be present during those early stages of a child's life. It's an important time where we see bonding happen, and it is also a really fascinating stage because children grow up so quickly. That's why this bill also introduces concurrent leave, and so from 2026 both parents can take four weeks of leave at the same time if they choose to do so. When I had my second child I ended up having a caesarean and needed care for a six-week period. I was lucky enough for my husband to have carers leave during that time. It was a really special time, and the thing I'd love to do is to not do this by chance or choice but give this opportunity to all families. It's about choice. It's about flexibility. It's about autonomy.

It's also a really challenging time, as well, when someone's learning how to feed their baby, change their nappies, and it is so much easier if you've got two parents who can run the show. What it also means is that families can choose how they arrange care for what is best for them and their circumstances. It means increasing flexibility for families and supporting both parents to take time off work together.

Earlier in this House, I talked about other government measures that are addressing gender inequality and economic disadvantage. These are complex issues, and that's why we have an integrated and holistic approach across government to achieve the change. This is about a government that consults and listens; it's not a top-down approach but one that's bottom up. It's an approach that feeds insight and expertise into decision-making processes. That's what works. We know it, and that's how we make better decisions.

Reforms introduced by this bill reflect the advice from the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce. The taskforce report identified that Australia relies on women to carry the greater share of unpaid work in homes and families. It also identifies the participation of women in the labour force and workplace is typically worse than their male counterparts. Why is this the case? The report highlights several reasons, from disparity in paid working hours to the undervaluation of traditional feminised work, discrimination, disrespect and insecure work. It's a system that traps women in cycles of poverty. Withdrawing from the workforce stunts women's careers, their earning capacity and their future security. Periods of unpaid work also mean no superannuation contribution. This leaves older women seriously vulnerable.

Women's economic inequality is an issue raised through the Jobs and Skills Summit and the employment white paper. Feedback that had been provided to the government during this process was that more support for families to balance their care was needed and, as a response, the changes that are introduced in this bill better address the needs of working Australian families. The changes provide greater security as they adjust to life as a parent, whether it be for the first time or welcoming a new addition to their family. The government has listened, and that's why it has been supported by advocates and representatives from the social services sector. The CEO of the Australian Council of Social Services, Dr Cassandra Goldie, welcomed the changes. She said:

We're pleased that single parents will be able to access 20 weeks of Paid Parental Leave. This is long overdue …

Businesses, unions and economists have also all agreed that providing more choice and flexibility and supporting working families is great for the economy. The reason for this is that boosting productivity by boosting women's participation in the workforce is great for the economy. That's why it's important that we have a scheme that complements other parental leave programs offered by more and more employers each year.

When the paid parental leave scheme was first introduced by the Gillard Labor government in 2011, it was groundbreaking. It was a critical milestone for women, because, until then, many women had not had access to any paid parental leave. It was a progressive step for gender equality. For working families, the 2011 reforms made an enormous difference to their lives.

This is what Labor does. It advances the lives of working families and advances gender equality. The reforms to the scheme that will be enacted by this bill will add an additional two weeks of payment each year from 1 July 2024, increasing the overall length of the scheme by an additional six weeks by July 2026. Each year, 180,000 families will benefit from this policy. It's a massive $1.2 billion investment towards making the lives of working families better. It's making it better for parents, making it better for children and making it better for the economy.

That's what we're here to do. It was Labor that created Medicare. It was Labor that created the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It was Labor that created the National Disability Insurance Scheme. And now we're making changes to reform and improve the scheme that was neglected for a decade by the opposition.

The Liberal Party prefer to distract, divide and demean rather than to govern—or, as Turnbull said of Dutton, they destroy. The Liberal Party prefer to scapegoat and demean vulnerable people, as they did with robodebt. Instead of supporting Australian families, they made things harder.

Under a Labor government, we have policies, as we see, coming out of this bill, that create a better Australia, a better future for our children, by supporting the health and wellbeing of parents, by fostering an environment that will provide choice, flexibility and autonomy, not an environment based on fear and division.

While the Liberals are doing that, Labor's getting on with the job. We're back in 2024 with a packed legislative agenda to keep Australia safe, create a better environment for all families and create a sense of belonging for all Australians.

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