Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) | Hansard source

It was so lovely to see the member for Canberra this morning with beautiful little baby Joseph. And we had baby Augie and baby Zoe visiting us this morning as well. We were talking about the fact that, in a week's time, from 1 July, paid parental leave will increase again for Australian families.

It's hard to remember that, before the Rudd and Gillard governments, Australia was one of the very few developed countries in the world that didn't have a paid parental leave scheme. Labor introduced it, Labor built it and its Labor that continues to expand it. From 1 July, so next week, parents with new beautiful little babies will get more time off with those babies. We're going to that full six months of paid parental leave. They'll receive more money. The actual rate, week on week, is going up, so they'll receive more than $1,000 a week when they're home with their babies. As well, since last year, those parents on paid parental leave have been getting superannuation so that they won't see that big gender pay gap in super. Of course, more people will also be eligible as we increase the thresholds for eligibility.

Thanks to this Labor government under this Prime Minister, families will receive almost $30,000 during that six months of paid leave, more than doubling what they were getting under those opposite. But those opposite have always been a bit of a mixed picture when it comes to paid parental leave. The former treasurer Joe Hockey called mothers 'double dippers' on Mother's Day. The former prime minister Scott Morrison called them 'rorters'. The member for Goldstein, of course, said, 'It's not my choice that women have children. It's genetic.' And now we've got—

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