Basem Abdo (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

And, if you're going to bring in other issues, Member for Barker, extend to your full time to explain yourself.

I rise to speak in support of the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025, a bill that reminds us that the law is not only about contracts and clauses but about compassion and conscience—about people; about Baby Priya and her family and families right across Australia. This legislation ensures that parents who endure the unthinkable, the death of their child, are not asked to return to work while they are still shattered by grief. It closes a cruel gap in our workplace laws and places humanity at the centre of our fair work system, a fundamental principle of the Albanese Labor government.

In June of last year, a baby girl named Priya was born just shy of 25 weeks. She was a tiny figure in a humidicrib, her parents, by her side, suspended between fear and hope. Her mother has since shared her story with immense courage. She said:

I used to call her my 'fighter girl' and my 'super girl' when she was in the NICU, encouraging her through every challenge she faced and overcame, until she couldn't anymore.

Priya lived for 42 days. Ten days after losing Priya, her mother—a loyal employee of 11 years—received a text message from work. It said her preapproved paid parental leave was being cancelled. Priya's mother asked if she could have, in her words, 'at least six weeks leave, for the time she was alive'. She received no response. Her partner, a teacher in the New South Wales public system, retained his full parental leave. Government paid leave is protected; private sector leave was not.

That cruel contrast, between two parents grieving the same child yet treated differently by two systems, laid bare an injustice no fair minded Australian could accept. So, in the depths of their grief, Priya's parents began to campaign. They launched a petition in March, calling on the government to make it illegal for employers to cancel paid maternity leave following infant death or stillbirth. They turned to their union, the Australian Services Union, for help. ASU secretary Angus McFarland said:

Parents deserve compassion and support during a time of unimaginable grief. No parent mourning the loss of a child should be forced back to work early or face financial strain.

Their campaign gained momentum. In mid-April, the then workplace relations minister announced that the government would move to close the loophole. Labor made an election commitment to protect grieving parents' entitlements.

This bill inserts a simple but profound principle into the Fair Work Act. Unless an employer and an employee have expressly agreed otherwise, employer funded paid parental leave cannot be cancelled because a child is stillborn or dies. It brings employer funded leave into line with government funded and unpaid leave entitlements. It ensures that parents like Priya's mum and dad have time to grieve, to heal and to rebuild without the indignity of having to bargain for compassion. It provides clarity for employers too, removing uncertainty and ensuring consistent practice across workplaces.

The amendment applies to parents who experience stillbirth or early infant loss and have workplace arrangements for parental leave in place, aligning private employer schemes with the protections already embedded for government funded leave. It preserves flexibility without imposing new obligations on employers who do not already provide paid leave and without overriding enterprise agreements or bargained entitlements. It simply sets a national standard that compassion is not optional.

Every year, around 3,000 families in Australia lose a child to stillbirth or within 28 days of life—roughly one every three hours. Behind each number is a story of love, loss and longing. In her own words, Priya's mother said:

It seems unfathomable in Australia, in 2025, that this is even possible. And yet, here we are.

Later she said:

My baby's name means 'Beloved' in Sanskrit.

I was her mother for 42 days, and I am STILL her mother. It is in her name, as Priya's mother, that I will ensure no other Australian grieving a stillbirth, or infant death, has her paid Maternity Leave cancelled by her employer.

That is the voice that moved our government and this parliament.

In April the Albanese Labor government made a clear commitment to close this loophole. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has been steadfast in ensuring that compassion is built into the law. She said, and I quote:

Parents should not have to deal with uncertainty about their employer-funded paid parental leave entitlements on top of their grief.

It is important that parents don't find themselves having to negotiate with their employers over their leave arrangements at such a difficult moment.

She's right, because no parent should ever have to open a text message cancelling their leave while they plan funerals. This bill makes sure they never will.

As a new father myself, I can hardly imagine the heartbreak that Priya's parents have lived through. When my son, Noah, was born earlier this year, in the NICU ward, I would watch him sleep, counting his breaths, filled with awe and fear in equal measure. Becoming a parent changes how you see everything. It makes you understand what it truly means to love without condition. That is why this story cuts so deeply, because every parent can picture that crib, that hospital room and that NICU ward.

This bill is not an abstraction. It's a moral necessity. At its core, this reform is also about our principle, the Labor principle, of dignity at work. It aligns with Labor's long tradition of ensuring that the Fair Work system reflects who we are as a society. Paid parental leave was a Labor reform. Superannuation on paid parental leave, a Labor reform. And now, Baby Priya's law, a Labor reform, continuing in that tradition.

Being an employer is about more than managing rosters and budgets. It's about recognising the humanity of your workforce, of the people who work for you. As Emma Walsh, CEO of Parents at Work, said:

Australia has a patchwork of paid parental leave policies. Not all employers offer paid parental leave and they're not required to by law, which leaves parents solely reliant on workplace discretion.

She also noted that Australia's scheme remains among the least generous in the OECD, reminding us why a national floor for compassion matters. She's right when she says:

Embedding compassion through major life events into workplace culture benefits everyone. Supporting parents through every stage—from fertility and pregnancy to childbirth, loss and the return to work—isn't just the right thing to do, it's vital for building thriving, sustainable workplaces.

Good employers already do this. This bill makes that decency the national standard. This reform also shines a light on how we treat loss in Australia. Disparities persist between public and private sectors and across states and regions. Government funded leave includes premature birth leave, giving parents additional time from birth to 37 weeks gestation so that they don't exhaust their entitlements before bringing their baby home. Many private policies don't.

The Pink Elephants Support Network's Not just aloss report, released alongside this bill, found that 75 per cent of women coping with miscarriage or stillbirth felt unsupported. More than two-thirds received no workplace support when told their pregnancy had ended. Women in regional and remote areas were 60 per cent more likely to experience perinatal death than those in major cities, and waited an average of three hours longer for miscarriage related care. The report describes an 'abandonment crisis', where families are denied basic workplace protections, such as bereavement leave certificates, that give them time and space to grieve.

One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. Six babies are stillborn every day in Australia. Those numbers demand compassion and not bureaucracy. At a recent South Australian inquiry into stillbirth, a mother named Cathy Nguyen shared her story. She had been told her pregnancy was healthy and low risk. She wrote:

I will never forget the moment my world shattered.

She went through 30 hours of labour to give birth to her daughter, Sage, who was stillborn. She said:

How can nature be so cruel? To allow me to birth death … to go through nearly 30 hours of labour and end with … my lifeless daughter.

Her words remind us that physical recovery, hormonal change and emotional devastation all co-exist and that our systems must recognise that complexity.

In 2018, a federal Senate inquiry into stillbirth delivered 16 recommendations. Labor acted and invested $7.2 million in prevention and research, but we know prevention must be matched by compassion. This bill delivers that next step. It sets a clear national principle that grief will not be compounded by financial loss or administrative cruelty, and it does so with broad support. The minister said: 'I hope the opposition supports this bill, which is motivated by the courageous advocacy of Priya's parents. I've been encouraged by the broad backing we've received from employer and employee groups, because fairness serves everyone.'

When we legislate for compassion, we reaffirm the core Labor principle and belief that work is about people. It's the same belief that drove early generations to fight for annual leave, to fight for simply, to fight for maternity leave and to fight for superannuation on paid parental leave. Fairness at work is not a gift; it's a right earned through struggle and enshrined through law. This bill continues that story. It measures our success not in dollars but in decency. Priya's mother said recently:

Priya's name is going to be law. My fighter girl, my Priya, has changed the world.

She certainly changed Australia. A little girl who lived for 42 days has changed how this country treats parents and families in their most vulnerable moments. That is her legacy. Her parents, who in their darkest hours found the strength to fight not for themselves but for others, have shown extraordinary courage. To them this parliament owns is thanks.

This bill is modest in its text but monumental in its meaning. It restores dignity where indignity once existed. It replaces silence with certainty and it tells every grieving parent in Australia, 'We see you, we stand with you and we will not let the system fail you again.' As a father, as a Labor MP and as an Australian, I see in this bill the best of what government can do: turn private pain into public purpose and ensure that compassion is not left to chance.

This bill before the parliament says that no parent should ever have to have their grief compounded. No family should lose a baby and then have their entitlements loom as a real consequential shadow compounding their grief. In Australia compassion as part of our workplace law. In the end this is more than a bill; it's a promise, a Labor promise, a government promise that our laws will reflect that humanity. It's a promise that the name Priya will forever stand for fairness, dignity and compassion.

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