Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022 is one of a suite of measures the Albanese Labor government is implementing to promote healthier, more equal communities across Australia, and it's something I know is very welcome in my community of Chisholm in Victoria. We were very clear, heading into the election, that ours would be a government that listened to the community and that we would honour commitments made during the campaign and beyond, including through the budget. This bill is an example of our government doing just that; listening and acting on the promises we've made.

Businesses, unions, experts and economists all understand that one of the very best ways to boost productivity and participation is to provide more choice and more support for families and more opportunities for women. It's really important that this bill's title is 'improvements for families and gender equality' because, of course, investing in paid parental leave benefits our economy and advances gender equality.

We are committed as the Albanese Labor government to expanding paid parental leave to 26 weeks, a full six months. This bill will implement the first tranche of the government's changes announced in the budget. Crucially, the bill will give more flexible access to government payments, giving parents greater choice in how they take leave, and encouraging parents to share care, to support gender equality. Paid parental leave reform was one of the most frequent proposals raised at the successful Jobs and Skills Summit in September. Indeed, in my own local Jobs and Skills Summit this was a topic we discussed also. Our government has listened, and that's why we're introducing this bill here. It is a really significant step to improve the scheme—of course, it was Labor who introduced the scheme into parliament in 2011.

This bill reflects our commitment and desire to improve the lives of working families, support better outcomes for children and also advance women's economic equality. There are around 181,000 families who will benefit from the changes in this bill, including around 4,300 people who will gain access for the first time because they would have been ineligible under the current scheme. We are modernising paid parental leave in this country to reflect how Australian families and their needs have changed since its establishment over a decade ago. These changes, to commence from 1 July this year, are the very first stage of our reforms, and they lay the foundation for expansion to 26 weeks by 2026.

It's clear the current scheme does not do enough to provide access to fathers and partners. It limits flexibility for families to choose how they'd like to take leave and transition back into work. The eligibility rules are unfair to families where the mother is the higher income earner. We need to modernise the scheme, and our bill fixes these issues, giving more families access to the government payment and giving parents more flexibility in how they take leave. It also encourages parents to share care to improve gender equality, which is a really important thing to do given Australia's standing on gender equality has gone backwards over the last decade.

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