Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to get up and speak on the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022, and I will signal, at the outset, that the opposition will be supporting this bill for a number of reasons. Firstly, credit to the government. They have picked up a number of the amendments to paid parental leave that the former government announced as part of the March 2022 budget. In fact, the vast majority of these changes have been adopted from there, and credit to the government for picking up on initiatives to provide increased flexibility and more user-friendly and more fit-for-purpose paid parental leave for modern families that were announced as part of that March 2022 budget.

We all know that PPL commenced in 2011. It currently consists of some constraints that this bill proposes to remove—a 12-week PPL period and six weeks of flexible PPL, and a dad and partner pay component of leave, which is a two-week period. This bill essentially increases the total number of weeks of available paid parental leave from 18 to 20 weeks and removes some of the constraints around the two-week period of dad and partner pay and the 12- and six-week PPL periods. We wholeheartedly support that because we know that mothers and fathers—parents—make household decisions around caring arrangements. We think increasing the number of weeks from 18 to 20, with the enhanced flexibility that represents, is eminently sensible.

The bill will do this by combining the PPL and DAPP, forming a single 20-week payment that, as I said, can be shared between parents. We agree with the provision in the bill for two weeks to be reserved on a 'use it or lose it' basis for each claimant. I think both parents, a mother and a father, having some time with their new child is important. That increased two weeks, to some extent, encourages both parents to have a period of leave. The bill removes the notion of primary, secondary and tertiary claimants. That's really a result of removing some of the existing rigidity that exists between who takes leave, when and how, between a mother and father. The bill also expands access by introducing a $350,000 income test, which will ensure that, rather than just assessing individual income between two parents, household income is considered when determining eligibility to PPL. We also approve of the increased and expanded flexibility, including the concept of PPL days and the flexibility around when they are used over a two-year period. This allows parents to take leave in big blocks or, indeed, in a single block or in whatever way works for that particular family. That was, to some extent, at the heart of what the former government sought to do with PPL, with our announcements in the March 2022 budget, and we are pleased to see these measures as part of this bill.

As I said at the outset, we'll support the bill, in stark contrast to what the former opposition did the last time there was a change in government. For those of us who have been around a bit longer, and have the battle scars to prove it, the former government was elected in 2013 with a very defined paid parental leave policy that was taken to an election. The then Labor opposition in no way respected the mandate of that particular government and sought to oppose it. That was quite a shameful thing to do. As the shadow ministry in opposition, we will not repeat that quite shameful position that the Labor opposition took. We will support these enhanced and sensible changes to paid parental leave. I note that this bill does not include the staged increase from 18 to 26 weeks; obviously, in later bills over the next few years the increase will take place bit by bit.

My message to the Australian public is: the coalition was a government that really stewarded paid parental leave, which saw it become a mainstay in mainstream Australian life. Our changes complimented, in many instances, paid parental leave offered by employers working in harmony with the baseline government scheme. But, where there are enhancements and improvements that can be made, where there are ways that we can help with what is an extraordinarily joyful but difficult time in every parent's life, that should be done. Walking through that door with a new baby, regardless of your family's circumstances, is a remarkable joy, and it changes people's lives. The purpose of paid parental leave is to provide, in particular, for mothers, who bear the physical burden, in most cases—where we don't include adoption—of having a child and then the huge adjustment in looking after and caring for a baby who needs you 24/7; this is a remarkable thing.

At its heart, paid parental leave should make it easier for mothers and fathers to make decisions that work for their family, that give them the opportunity to spend what is a very precious and important time with their child, unencumbered by the pressures of work, where they choose to do so. I think the changes in this bill that provide greater flexibility for families to determine how they use that 20 weeks of leave are in keeping with the changes to modern families. But this legislation also maintains what is a timeless aspect at the heart of paid parental leave, which is trying to give parents time with their child and trying to help them adjust to the remarkable differences in family life when having your first child, or your second or third or more, and the additional burdens that places on families.

I will support good changes to paid parental leave. We'll have a lot more to say about these things over the next couple of years. As I said, we'll adopt a different approach in opposition than the Labor opposition did in the last government. We will support this. We won't stand in the way of paid parental leave, as the Labor opposition did after the 2013 election. We'll very happily support this, acknowledging that a huge number of the changes and a significant portion of the increased flexibility in this bill were adopted from the coalition, who announced this in March 2022.

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