Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Paid Parental Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022, which expands the financial support currently provided by Australia's Paid Parental Leave scheme. I am particularly glad to be speaking on this bill as we approach United Nations International Women's Day. We still have a long way to go with women's equality in Australia. We currently rank 43rd out of 146 in the world. This is not good enough for Australia. We can do better. Improving paid parental leave is one way to improve women's economic security and improve gender equity.

Paid parental leave changes lives. Indeed, had it been in place when I had my boys, James and Nicholas, back in 2006, it would have made my time as a new mum considerably easier and far less stressful. It would have provided my husband, Michael, with an opportunity to be fully involved with the boys as babies, and it would have provided us as a family with choices that were not available to us. Numerous studies have shown that paid parental leave schemes provide invaluable assistance to Australians—Australian parents, Australian workers, Australian employers and the Australian economy overall. Without doubt, paid parental leave is one of the most important economic measures that governments can adopt to support women—Australian women. And, when Australian women do well, their families do well and our country does well.

By way of background: the Paid Parental Leave scheme commenced on 1 January 2011. This bill provides amendments to extend parental leave pay from 18 weeks to 20 weeks. It will combine parental leave pay with dad and partner pay, forming a single payment of 20 weeks that can be shared between parents. The measure seeks to make sharing of parental leave between parents a central part of the scheme. A parent who does not have a partner at the time will also be able to claim a maximum of 20 weeks parental leave. In this way, the bill seeks to improve gender equality by removing the current default of parental leave pay that assumes that birth parents are primary carers and that birth parents are not the primary income earners in a household.

The bill expands access to paid parental leave by introducing a $350,000 income test on the family income rather than the current individual income test, which is just over $150,000. I am very pleased to say that, in the period between 2010 and 2017, the number of women with a taxable income of more than $150,000 doubled. However, families can currently be treated differently depending on which parent has the higher income. This is grossly unfair to women who are the primary income earners, and does not accord with modern Australia. Indeed, when I had my boys, this was precisely what occurred in our family under the old family tax benefit system. To clarify the way the system currently works: there could be two families, each with an identical household income, and one family could be eligible because the father is the primary income earner, while the other family is ineligible because the mother is the primary income earner. Under this bill, with the introduction of a family income limit, families will no longer be denied access to payments just because of the income of the mother. It is expected nearly 3,000 additional parents will become eligible each year due to this measure.

The bill will also put more flexibility into the paid parental leave system to allow parents to best use their parental leave payments in a manner that best suits them. Paid parental leave will consist only of flexible paid parental leave days. This measure allows parents to take parental leave in blocks as small as a day at a time, with periods of working in between, during the period that starts the day the child is born and ends the day before the child's second birthday or second anniversary of care. This flexibility seeks to support mothers to return to work whenever they wish and will benefit parents who work part time or are self-employed to continue working after a birth or adoption.

The bill also allows eligible parents to take a maximum of two weeks parental leave pay concurrently, assisting parents to share caring responsibilities, and providing an opportunity for dads and partners to also provide care for birth parents, to support their health. This will greatly assist all parents, but particularly parents of twins and multiple births. As the mother of twins, I particularly support this measure. The bill does limit the concurrency period, to ensure that parents are encouraged to return to work.

The coalition remains committed to supporting Australian women's participation in the workforce. At its highest level, the clear benefit of paid parental leave is to increase female workforce participation. However, the health benefits for mothers cannot be overestimated. It can assist with bonding with the child, breastfeeding and recovery from childbirth. Studies have also shown it can assist with lowering postnatal depression rates and improving new mums' mental health. Paid parental leave can also lower infant mortality. It ensures that women are not disadvantaged in their employment through their intrinsic role in childbearing. It supports economic security for women throughout their lives. It supports the health and welfare of mothers as well as their newborn children. It assists Australian parents to manage their work and parental responsibilities so that the needs of children and families may be met in the context of modern Australian society.

This amended scheme will also go some way to ensuring that working women do not unwillingly delay or avoid having children because of the financial ramifications. This scheme particularly supports first time mums through assisting childbirth recovery and perinatal and postnatal health challenges such as premature birth. Most importantly, it supports my fundamental Liberal principles that the role of government is to facilitate an environment to enable Australians to have choice and to make decisions that are right for their individual circumstances. It helps Australian women decide when they will have children.

I also support fathers being able to access to paid parental leave. Again, this enables Australian parents to make choices that are right for their individual, particular family circumstances. For dads it can increase their parental satisfaction, through time spent bonding with their baby. In my family, my husband, Michael, would have really benefited from and enjoyed having more time with our boys when they were very young. It also can assist to create a more equitable division of household labour—another thing that I would have appreciated 16 years ago.

I note that the coalition has sought assurances from the government that the amendments to increase flexibility in this bill will not negatively impact upon small businesses. At this point I will say that I commend all those Australian businesses who, over many years, have introduced their own paid parental leave and assisted many of their female employees back into the workforce. I've been advised that Services Australia will provide additional support to businesses to manage the new scheme to both minimise any economic impact and ensure that businesses are aware of the changes to the scheme well in advance of its commencement on 1 July this year.

I note that, in the lead-up to the budget in October last year, the government announced that this scheme would be progressively increased to 26 weeks. That measure is not in this bill, and I will welcome that legislation from the government in due course. I ask, though, that the government consider amending this bill to include superannuation guarantee payments on parental leave pay, as the scheme was initially envisaged. This will go some way to bridging the disparity between the superannuation balances of Australian men and women, where women still lag a long way behind men.

To conclude, this is a good bill. Paid parental leave is vital for Australian mums; it is vital for Australian dads. It is integral to women's workforce participation, for mothers' physical and mental health, and for giving fathers the opportunity to be more fully involved in their children's early care. For all of the reasons I have mentioned, I commend this bill to the House.

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