Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the issue of parental leave. I do so in light of the announcement by the Rudd Labor government that the Productivity Commission will examine ways the government can provide improved support to parents and newborn children. I commend the government for this decision and I encourage the Productivity Commission, as part of their public hearings, to come to north Brisbane to hear from my local community. What I want to explore today, though, is something that gets little mention, and that is the role of the father in work and family balance. Currently, under section 282 of the Workplace Relations Act, there is an entitlement for all male employees who become fathers to access unpaid paternity leave of up to 52 weeks from the birth of their child. The problem is that this right is almost unknown. I know from personal experience, as my husband took six months paternity leave following my six months maternity leave after the birth of our children in 2000 and 2002, that many people are unaware of this right. I have continued to witness this lack of awareness in 2008.

In Australia, the analysis of the use of paternity leave by men is almost non-existent. Paid paternity leave was available, according to the ABS, in May 2006 to 31.7 per cent of male employees or a total of 1.441 million employees. However, the ABS has not conducted a study for males and paternity leave use comparable to its survey of females and their use of leave at the birth of a child. There is survey data from a study funded by the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in a report titled Growing up in Australia: the longitudinal study of Australian children, written by Gillian Whitehouse at the University of Queensland, that showed that leave taken by fathers was quite different to that taken by mothers. Unsurprisingly, fathers took much shorter periods of leave than mothers did. The overall average duration of leave taken by fathers was 14 days, while for mothers the overall average duration of leave taken was 38 weeks. In addition, fathers were much more likely than mothers to take paid leave only, particularly forms of paid leave other than paternity or parental leave.

Although I agree that there is much to be done to improve our standards in Australia and to bring them up to ILO standards and in line with other developed countries, I do believe that when we are talking about the first 12 months of a child’s life we can do much more to inform the community of the choices that already exist. Australian governments, industrial commissions and antidiscrimination tribunals have done much to ensure that women and businesses across the country are aware of the right of a female employee to take maternity leave up to 52 weeks after the first full year of employment. This is widely known and it would be uncommon to find either an employee or an employer who was not aware of this right. However, the same cannot be said about paternity leave. An OECD paper released in November 2007 entitled Matching work and family commitments stated in relation to parental leave entitlements:

If both parents were to take their individual leave entitlements consecutively where these are available (or take leave simultaneously on a part-time basis), this would go some way towards covering—

the important period of six to 12 months of the child’s life.

The policies in many European countries try to stimulate fathers to spend more time with their children by legislating periods of paid parental leave exclusively for their use. There has been some success, as many fathers use a short-term, two-to-four week, period of paid leave. However, taking such short periods of leave does not reflect a fundamental behavioural change on the part of fathers. Paternal attitudes are not the only issue, as mothers frequently are reluctant to give up leave in favour of their partner taking leave. Iceland seems to have made the most progress in getting fathers to spend more time with their children. Since reform in 2001, each parent has the right to a non-transferable three-month paid leave period, with another three-month period of paid leave to be shared among partners. In 2000, the share of parental leave days used by fathers was only 3.3 per cent but, since reform, this has gone up to around 35 per cent. In other OECD countries, the debate about individualisation of paid parental leave entitlements and a more equal sharing of care responsibilities has yet to start in earnest. There are many benefits to shared parental leave. I accept that Work Choices realistically did much damage to the entitlement of paternity leave and that we need to catch up to simply bring workers’ entitlements back to the level they were prior to the damaging Work Choices laws. However, these rights do exist for many and I believe that an education program needs to be run by both the federal and state governments to lift the awareness of this entitlement and to encourage both men and women to discuss their options as valid alternatives. With this, we may begin to move forward on the issue of work and family balance.