Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I very much thank the member for Wakefield for his question because, as he knows, the government values the hard work of all parents, whether they are in the paid workforce or whether they are at home. What we do on this side of the House is support families to make their own work and family choices. That is why the government supports families through the baby bonus and family tax benefits parts A and Bill, and that is why, from 1 January next year, we will be delivering Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme. This will give mums and dads extra support so that they can spend more time at home with their newborn babies.

Our scheme is fair to families and fair to businesses. The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and individual employers have all welcomed our scheme. Employers are now embracing the opportunity to work with the government to make sure we give parents more work and family choices. Just today we have seen Westpac and their new collective agreement offering 13 weeks of paid parental leave. This makes Westpac a paid parental leave pacesetter in the financial sector. Westpac, like many other companies, clearly recognises the value of being an employer of choice and the value of family friendly working conditions for attracting and retaining their staff. I know the Deputy Prime Minister, as the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, has a very keen interest in this agreement. Westpac is providing employees with the flexibility to decide on the work and family conditions that suit them and their families. The important thing is that Westpac’s scheme will be in addition to the government’s paid parental leave scheme. This means that Westpac employees will be entitled to up to 31 weeks of paid parental leave.

Instead of supporting and encouraging companies like Westpac, this Leader of the Opposition, of course, is not supporting those companies; what he wants to do is impose a great big new tax on all of these businesses. We know that for 12 years when he was in government, this Leader of the Opposition opposed paid parental leave. All of us know that this Leader of the Opposition in fact famously said that paid parental leave would be introduced over his dead body. Now of course, after a staggering back flip, he has come up with a sham scheme that will impose this great big new tax and see prices go up both for families and for pensioners. If ever it was the case that his scheme was introduced, we would see very substantial amounts of money going to high-income earners. High-income families—high-income parents—would be getting around $75,000 under the scheme of this Leader of the Opposition.

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