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

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Nationals is close to going out for an hour. Effectively, the leaders knew what they were doing to get the object photographed. That then makes the application of the agreed policy about documents being displayed very hard. I find that type of attitude a little disturbing. The member for Petrie will start her question again.

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

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. How is the Gillard Labor government delivering support for new mothers?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for her question and for her very real commitment to paid parental leave. As the member for Petrie knows, and as all members of the House should by now know, on 1 January 2011 Australia will finally get its first national paid parental leave scheme. This will be a historic day for the mothers and fathers of Australia, who have waited decades for paid parental leave. In just over one month, Australia will finally catch up with the rest of the developed world. This will be extremely important, not just for mothers and fathers but for all the newborn babies who are going to get a better start in life because of our paid parental leave scheme. It will give parents—mothers and fathers—the financial security to spend more time at home with their newborn baby, time which will allow mothers to recover from the birth, to bond with their newborn baby and, where possible, to establish breastfeeding.

Today we saw the release of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report Australia’s mothers and babies, which shows that the number of women giving birth remains high in this country. So it is not surprising that we see so many mums enthusiastically ringing the Family Assistance Office and registering for the new Paid Parental Leave scheme. More than 2,700 applications for paid parental leave have already been registered. We have also seen a very significant number of employers signing up—around 550 employers have already signed up for the Paid Parental Leave scheme. Employers understand just how important paid parental leave is, both for their businesses and for their employees. They also understand that they will not be slugged with a new tax, one which was going to be delivered to them courtesy of this Leader of the Opposition. Employers understand that paid parental leave will mean that there will be better workforce connection with the mothers in their employment. They also know that it is likely to increase workforce participation.

Everyone in this House will know that for 12 years this Leader of the Opposition refused to deliver paid parental leave. He so famously said that paid parental leave would only be delivered over his dead body. Paid parental leave is being delivered because of this government and we can only speculate what that might mean for the Leader of the Opposition. We know that the member for Moncrieff thinks that they are just a complete bunch of wreckers on that side of the House. By contrast, this government is delivering—we are delivering a strong economy; we are delivering jobs; we are delivering in health and education. This government is delivering high-speed broadband and, on 1 January, we will deliver Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.