Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For me the first year of my son's life was filled with awe and joy as well as sleep deprivation and anxiety, all in equal parts. I had prepared myself for the awe and joy, and many well-meaning parents had tried to prepare me for the sleep deprivation part of it. But what I hadn't realised was the constant hum of anxiety that would permeate that year. Was he feeding enough? Was he feeding too much? Why wasn't he crawling or talking or sleeping? It was a constant loop of questions and fears.

But in that first year there was one aspect of our ever-changing life that I didn't have to worry about, and that was our family's finances. A combination of paid parental leave schemes provided by my employer and the government meant that I could take a full year off to look after my son. It was a year that I loved and, as a new parent, it was a year that I needed. My son thrived. He grew from a wrinkly and crying newborn to a chubby and bubbling toddler. He continued not to be great on the sleep front, but that would come some years later. But it was a magical year.

It's been more than a decade since the Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced in Australia. At the time of its introduction, along with the United States, we were one of only two countries in the OECD that didn't have a statutory paid parental leave scheme. It's now become so entrenched and important a social policy that you sometimes forget that we didn't have it at all. Forty years ago, when my mother had me, her decision to return to work was governed by our family's financial situation and not my parents' own wishes. So I was placed in child care full time at just a couple of months old, as soon as the centre would take me. My mum doesn't have regrets about that decision, because it wasn't a choice she had the luxury of making. It was simply a reality of the times.

Years of research have shown that paid parental leave improves the wellbeing of families and children, encourages women to remain connected with work and sends a message that children and parenting are important in our society. I think it's time to look at the Paid Parental Leave scheme again and examine where further improvements can be made.

For me, a critical area where we could strengthen what we have at the moment is to encourage both parents to access paid parental leave. Currently only two weeks of leave are available for non-primary caregivers, who are often fathers. Compare that to the 18 weeks provided to the primary caregiver, usually the mother. The difference is stark, and it played out in my experience in that first year of my son's life. The community healthcare workers valiantly tried to rename our mothers group a 'parenting group' and encouraged dads to attend, but, in the end, every week it was a gathering of a dozen mums with their kids. At a time when we as a society need to move towards greater gender balance when it comes to caring responsibilities, our policy settings are still entrenching the role of women as primary carers, and I think that needs to change. Treating parenting as an equal partnership helps to improve gender equality and encourage women to participate in the workforce. We should be offering families more choice and flexibility.

When the Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced more than a decade ago, it was a game changer for many parents, including me. I want to thank two women who fought tirelessly to get the Paid Parental Leave scheme implemented: Professor Marian Baird from the University of Sydney Business School, who spent decades researching and advocating for paid parental leave; and Jenny Macklin, the minister responsible for bringing this policy idea to fruition. I thank them both.

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