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

Thanks so much to the member for Cunningham. I know that she is out and about in her electorate all the time, and she knows that over 1,800 parents benefited from paid parental leave in her electorate just last year. Last week, I met Baby Zoe and her mum and dad. Baby Zoe is number three in a family of three children. What Zoe's mum, Anne, told me is that, each time she got paid parental leave, she got more time off and more money—the last two times because of the big changes that we have made since coming to government in 2022. And, if Anne and Dad Chris decide to have No. 4, they will get more time off: the full six months. They'll get more money, at the higher rate of over $1,000 a week. They'll get more flexibility—more time to take off together if they wish. And of course they are also part of the larger group of people that are eligible now, because we've increased thresholds. Thanks to our changes, families now get around $30,000 of paid parental leave. That's more than double what it was when we came to government.

But it's not just about paid parental leave. We've also increased family tax benefit. For example, a family with one kid over the age of 13 is about $1,500 better off a year since we came to government. Families are benefiting from higher wages, lower taxes, three hours of free power and a stronger Medicare system. And, of course, we're helping families get into a home of their own as well.

But none of this is safe if those opposite have their way. The Liberals have never supported paid parental leave. One Nation hates it. Senator Hanson said in 2017 that women just get pregnant for the money. She said in April: 'Listen, love, you have the equipment. That's what you're here for. If you don't want to interrupt your career, don't have a baby.' And, at the Press Club recently, she said, 'The gender pay gap is all smoke and mirrors. Women take time off, and they're not paid their wages, because they're not working. Fair enough.'

But this is typical. One Nation pretend they're for working families, but they're not. They're for lower wages. They say that workers are lazy, should be easier to sack and are paid too much. It fits right in with the Liberal Party, who say that low wages are a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture.

On this side, we know what we're for. We are for higher wages, we are for lower taxes, we are for stronger paid parental leave, we are for a stronger Medicare system, we're for free TAFE and lower university costs and we are for working families. Those opposite are all whinge and all pretence.

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