Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a bill about Baby Priya and about fixing a loophole in a law identified by her grieving parents. It is not about anything else. It is not about a culture war. It is not about what the member has just put as a question. It is a bill born from heartbreak and from the hope of Baby Priya's parents to fix a law that was broken, and nothing else, Member for New England—nothing else. This bill carries the name of a little girl who lived for just six weeks. After Priya passed away, her parents—her mother in particular—faced something no parent should ever face: not just unimaginable grief but a call from her employer asking when she would return to work. She had to renegotiate her paid parental leave while grieving the loss of her child. No parent should ever have to go through that, and I'm sure those opposite degree.

Before this bill, the law was not clear. Employers provide government funded paid parental leave but many also offer their own employer funded leave. Fundamentally, that is a good thing. It is something that, as a Labor government, we encourage. Government funded paid parental leave of course was a Labor creation in 2007, which, importantly, was reformed and modernised last term, with it being extended to six months and, for the first time, having superannuation added to it—good reforms to a good public policy. This bill is also a good form of public policy that our nation needs.

If a child is stillborn or has passed away, the current law does not clearly say whether that employer funded leave could continue. Good employers still protect parents. Some were aware of the loophole but stepped in at a time of grief and they should be applauded. Others do not know what their responsibilities are and that is understandable as well. Then there is obviously the minority who do not really care. This law seeks to bring fairness to paid parental leave legislation, remove that uncertainty, provide clarity for parents and—importantly—employers through what would be just an incredibly terrible time of grief and sadness in a person's life.

This bill makes clear that if a child is stillborn or dies, employer funded paid parental leave cannot be cancelled or taken away. I will repeat that because it seems pretty clear to me what it is here for. If a child is stillborn or dies, the employer funded paid parental leave cannot be cancelled or taken away. It ensures that grieving parents will be able to have the time they need with certainty, dignity and compassion. It brings employer funded leave into line with government funded and unpaid parental leave. It removes confusion both for parents and for employers and it ensures no-one has to make a discretionary call in the middle of a time of immense grief and tragedy. It also preserves the right of employers and employees to bargain in good faith and to continue negotiating above standard conditions if they choose, because we need to also acknowledge that many employers pay paid parental leave and provide these provisions above the minimum standards.

This law is about clarity and compassion. At the heart of this bill is humanity. As a parent, I can't imagine what it's like, the pain of losing a child—the heartbreak that comes when all these hopes and all those plans suddenly stop. Whether it's through miscarriage, stillbirth or the death of a baby in those early weeks, that loss changes a person, changes a family, will change a community forever. This reform exists because those parents who experienced that and who went through what Priya's parents went through found the strength at a time of enormous darkness to speak up. They could have stayed silent. They could have sheltered their grief. But, like the best in our society, they said: 'I need to use this pain so that no-one else has to go through what I've been through. No-one should have to go through what we did.'

When parents are going through the worst possible experience, they don't need forms, they don't need to negotiate with their employer, and they certainly don't need to negotiate entitlements and policies; they need time, they need compassion, and they need to know that the world around them understands that their grief is real and that they are supported through that grief.

This law seeks to remove unfairness to give parents the time and space that they need to heal. This bill, I think, also reflects the broader values of our Labor government, something that the member for Calwell so eloquently put in his contribution beforehand. We believe in a fair work system that supports people when they need it most, through wages, through conditions, through support, through leave, through paid parental leave. It's a system that we always need to work on, that we always need to make better, that we always need to modernise, just like we did with reforms to our paid parental leave system, including superannuation payments, so that families are supported and that women's retirement savings in particular are boosted. We're modernising the Fair Work Act to make it fairer, more certain and more compassionate. We're strengthening workplace rights by supporting parents and ensuring that the laws that support them reflect the values of our nation. If we were to go and speak to communities right across the country, I can't see that there would be much objection from many people to this law. Good governments find these loopholes, work with communities and promptly fix them. That's what the minister has done with Priya's parents, and that's what this government will do in support of this bill.

Lastly, I'd just like to acknowledge Priya's parents. It can't be easy to go through this. We all saw them in the gallery when this bill was introduced, with the photo of their baby Priya. Listening to the minister speak must have been an incredibly emotional time for them. I would like to thank them for their courage and for their strength and for turning their deeply personal tragedy into good public policy. Their advocacy has ensured that no other parent will ever have to face the same uncertainty they did. Also, we need to thank the parents and families who have shared their stories, many in our correspondence inboxes, in support of this bill. These families have pushed for fairness and have turned their pain into a good purpose.

This parliament often debates numbers and concepts and percentages, but every now and then we pass a law that speaks directly to our humanity, and this is one of those laws. With the passage of this bill, I say to every parent: if the unthinkable happens, you will have certainty, you will have time, and you will have the compassion of this parliament. Through this bill, baby Priya's name will live on not as a story of loss but as a story of love, of courage and of change. That's something that every member of this house should be proud to support.

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