Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) there are around 2.5 million families with dependent children aged under 15 in Australia;

(b) Australia has one of the least generous paid parental leave schemes in the OECD;

(c) McKinsey & Company found that in Australia, participation in early childhood education is lower and costs over 40 percent more than the OECD average; and

(d) perinatal discrimination is the top discrimination complaint in Australian workplaces;

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) Australia lags developed countries in the provision of best practice, evidenced-based policies that support families and children;

(b) at the Jobs and Skills Summit there was broad agreement from trade unions to the Business Council of Australia, and advocacy groups that improving paid parental leave and childcare were essential to improving women's workforce participation; and

(c) there is significant economic benefit to Australia from increasing female workforce participation, gender equity and outcomes for children; and

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) provide for at least 26 weeks of paid parental leave with a use it or lose it provision to incentivise shared use of leave where there are two carers;

(b) set 1 January 2023 as the start date for lower the cost of early childhood education for all families; and

(c) improve access to paid carers' leave for parents of sick children.

This motion outlines a very important need. We need a more generous, shared paid parental leave scheme of no less than 26 weeks, lowering the cost of early childhood education and improving access to paid carers leave for parents of sick children. In February 2021, I moved a similar motion and, disappointingly, despite a change of government, there has been a lack of progress on these key issues for young Australian families. Closing the gender pay gap and facilitating women's participation in the workforce must be a priority. At the recent Jobs and Skills Summit, there was broad agreement from unions to business councils of Australia and advocacy groups that, to increase women's participation in the workforce, we need to improve paid parental leave and make child care more affordable. We saw a lot of other policy move, but, in response to this very key ask, what we got from the Prime Minister was, 'We will think about it,' and 'Not now,' or 'Let's have an inquiry.' That is, with respect, not good enough. Women and parents are tired of waiting.

There is a strong economic case for these changes. Equity Economics has estimated that the cumulative impact of proposed changes, like those in this motion, could increase GDP by 4.1 per cent by 2050 or some $166 billion. If Australia were to lift female participation equivalent to that of men, it would increase GDP by 8.7 per cent or some $353 billion by 2050. We don't need to look only to migration to reduce skills shortages. We need to ensure that women in Australia have the ability to participate in the workforce. There's a health imperative as well in these measures. I presented a petition last week in relation to the World Health Organization's guidelines and the National Breastfeeding Strategy goals relating to children having the opportunity to be exclusively breast fed for six months, yet we don't have a paid parental leave scheme that facilitates that.

A fairer, more widely accessible paid parental leave scheme in tune with 21st century families—working families, working parents—is urgently needed. The current Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced in 2009. The make-up of families has changed. A new scheme must take into account all families—double-income, stay-at-home dads, stay-at-home mums and a far greater proportion of single-parent families. We lag behind developed countries. At the moment, the average in OECD countries is 55 weeks, and yet we have 18 weeks for the primary carer and two weeks for the other parent.

Last Father's Day, the Grattan Institute released research showing that shared paid parental leave not only boosts mothers' earnings but it can boost our entire GDP. Increasing the entitlement to 26 weeks, shared between parents, would cost some $600 million per year but it would return $900 million per year, as well as boosting a mother's lifetime earnings by $30,000. Time and time again we come back to this place and we hear that the gender pay gap is not narrowing, and women are still behind. And yet here is the measure to start to narrow that pay gap. So don't put it on the shelf. Don't put it away for another inquiry. Actually act upon it.

At the moment, you have a system that has no incentive for sharing. We know men's participation in parental leave is incredibly low. That's because of the way the system is set up. It is income-tested on the woman's income, the mother's income. We need to make sure that it's not just a cap of $150,000 per year on the birth mother; it must be a joint household income, a couple's income. This will encourage fathers into caring roles, improve their long-term bond with children, increase their participation in unpaid work in households and give them an appreciation around the world of the carer but also provide primary carers with that opportunity to return to their career sooner and more sustainably. We know this is so incredibly important to facilitate women's participation in the workforce. We know childcare fees have increased some 41 per cent in recent years. The Productivity Commission last year found that the massive block is the cost of child care. The government is talking about improving that situation on 1 July 2023. I say: make it 1 January 2023. The changes are needed now.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve the right to speak.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the spirit in which this motion has been brought before the chamber. It's great to be part of a debate about an issue that we know Australians, particularly parents of young children, really care about and are grappling with. There are lots of us on the Australian Labor Party side who are going through this right now, as we have recently had a baby or are expecting a baby. Our side really does reflect that demographic at this point in time. I disagree, however, with one of the comments that were made by the mover, saying that there has been a lack of progress on this issue, particularly in relation to child care. As we stand here this week, the make-up sitting week, one of the first sitting weeks of this parliament, we are introducing a bill to make child care cheaper. It was our election commitment. It will make child care cheaper for a majority—in fact, over 95 per cent—of Australian families. It will make child care cheaper. That was our election commitment, and we are doing it. We are making progress on this critical issue.

When we were in opposition, we saw childcare fees skyrocket, locking predominantly women out of accessing child care on that third or fourth day because of the cost of fees. The reason why it can't be done on 1 January 2023 is actually quite a practical reason. I chair the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training, and, when this question was put to the department, they just said that it couldn't be done. It would be diabolical. We can't get all the mechanisms of government together in time to introduce it. The childcare subsidy system is actually performed largely by Services Australia. They said it took about 50 weeks to introduce the previous changes put forward by the government. Meeting the deadline of 1 July 2023 was going to be a challenge that they could meet, but they could not meet the deadline of January 2023. There are functions of government that mean that this couldn't be possible; it's not just a budgetary decision.

We have a very complex childcare system, which is why I welcome the government's plan to review the entire sector. I believe that running child care as a welfare subsidy is not what we should be doing. Child care should be universal. It should be treated as early childhood education, like primary school. There has to be a better way to deliver early learning to the children of Australia.

The other point that I want to pick up on in the second part of my speech is access to paid parental leave. It was a Labor government that first introduced a fully funded government paid parental leave scheme, back in 2011. Prior to that, we were one of two OECD countries that did not have a government funded paid parental leave scheme. It was a start, and I acknowledge that it was a start. It allowed the birth parent—predominantly mothers—or the parent who took on the primary caring role after an adoption to take 18 weeks of paid parental leave at the national minimum wage. It also allowed the primary carer to have that topped up if their employer offered paid parental leave for the birth of a child or for adoption. What we find right now is that most women take leave granted by their employer, then they take leave paid by the government at the national minimum wage, and then they might take some sick leave or annual leave to get them to either nine months or 12 months, or as much time as they can get.

It's a clunky system; it's not enough. What we need to do is work out a system which is fairer for all. I am very concerned that we still have dads and partners taking only two weeks of leave. In that first two weeks—having been through it with two children now—it is too crazy to be able to really focus on what's happening. If your partner requires a caesarean, the medical advice is that they don't drive for six weeks and don't lift for six weeks. Who's there to pick up the toddler in weeks 3, 4 and 5 if the dad or partner isn't there at home? We need to be doing more to help couples and to help families in those early months of life.

It is about gender equality, because, once you get to month 3 or month 4, the partner at home tends to be the one doing the housework whilst they're caring for children. It is currently entrenched. We do need to do more on paid parental leave, more than what this motion is suggesting, and that's why I welcome the review of the government. (Time expired)

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an absolutely crucial issue for the people of Wentworth. This is not just about female gender equity in terms of wages, which is absolutely crucial, but also about quality of life for men and fathers, and child development. By increasing paid parental leave and changing the rules so that men, or the second parent, have a 'use it or lose it' level of paid parental leave, we have an opportunity to fundamentally shift how we look after children in this country.

Let's start, however, with gender equity. In this country, the latest data shows that there's a 14 per cent gap in male and female earnings. However, this is close to zero when it comes to early careers. In early careers there is not a gender pay gap, but it is through the child-bearing and child-rearing ages that the gender pay gap emerges. I saw this fundamentally within my own community in Wentworth. I saw it in people I went to school and uni with, who worked similarly to their partners—in similar sorts of job, in similar levels of jobs—but then, when it came to having and caring for children, there was such a gendered experience. With almost all the parents that I knew, women took a much more significant amount of time off and, in some cases, struggled to come back into the workforce or had real issues coming back into the workforce.

I don't believe this is about misogyny; this isn't about chauvinism. This is a cultural issue in Australia, where the expectation is that women will look after the kids. Increased paid parental leave could really address this issue. If we look at the statistics around paid parental leave and who takes it, only around two per cent of Australian men use primary carer paid parental leave, compared to an OECD average of 18 per cent. In countries like Sweden and Iceland, just over 40 per cent of primary carer paid parental leave is taken by men. This is a fundamental difference in how Australia experiences the world and how the rest of the world experiences the world. It's not surprising, therefore, to see that Australia has one of the most gendered distributions of careers and one of the biggest issues in terms of female economic empowerment. So I think this is a real opportunity for the government to take leadership.

I support an increase in paid parental leave because I think that's absolutely crucial to families. But it is crucial in this design that we get to at least 26 weeks paid parental leave, and six weeks of that must be used by a second parent—in most cases, a man—with a two-week element being 'use it or lose it'. The evidence shows that, if there's such a significant amount of parental leave available, men will change their cultures, and workplaces will actually change the expectation of what happens to men when there is a baby in the house, when they have a child. If we can fundamentally change the expectation of men's and women's involvement in child rearing, we are going to increase the economic empowerment of women and also achieve two other key results. Firstly, overseas evidence has shown that, if men are more involved in child rearing, they improve their connection to their children and they improve their own life satisfaction. When you see men's high suicide rates and rates of depression, you think, 'What can you do to actually improve the lot of men?' and this is absolutely a crucial part of it. A second piece of research has shown that the involvement of male partners in the lives of their children is increased by them taking more leave at the start, and, if they do that, that increases child development. So this is a piece that can increase child development, increase men's satisfaction and address gender equity.

This is something that costs $600 million. That's a lot of money, but, compared to so many different things that we do in this country, the economic outcomes and the social outcomes we could achieve through this sort of a scheme are absolutely crucial. So I think it's crucial that the government take leadership in this space. They have spoken about wanting to lead in really empowering women in the community. This is an easy opportunity for them to pursue and to at least put us on the path to this in this budget so that we can get to the stage of having 26 weeks of paid parental leave, six weeks of which must be used by the second parent and two weeks which is 'use it or lose it'. That will achieve outcomes on all bases.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion on paid parental leave, put forward by the member for Warringah. My duty as a member of the House of Representatives is to support families in ensuring a better future for their children. Putting families at the front and centre of policymaking is the guiding principle of the Albanese Labor government. It is the basis of the government's commitment to improving our country's Paid Parental Leave scheme to help parents to find a better balance between work and caring responsibilities.

The Rudd Labor government made notable strides in strengthening gender equality by introducing the first-ever government funded paid parental leave scheme in 2011. At the time Australia was one of just two OECD countries without a national statutory paid parental leave scheme, along with the United States. Since then, the former coalition government have argued that working mothers claiming their full parental leave entitlements are a rort and a fraud and have accused them of double-dipping. Such comments were hurtful to so many and showed the coalition's lack of ambition in encouraging more parents to participate in the workforce. The coalition fails to understand that workplace diversity and promoting parental workforce participation is not just good for families; it's good for the nation. Encouraging parents, particularly women, to take up work and leadership roles is a huge driver of economic growth. Matching women's workforce participation with that of men would increase Australia's GDP by a whopping $353 billion by 2050, or 8.7 per cent.

The Albanese government is considering specific amendments to the Paid Parental Leave scheme. Future changes will guarantee that the scheme will continue to meet the expectations of families across Australia and complement the parental leave scheme offered by several employers. These enhancements will be the result of carefully considering the various factors which influence the scheme's success. It is essential to make it better and it is important to get it right. While improving the paid parental leave scheme is a vital priority of this government, every good idea is only as good as the government's ability to provide for it within the context of the budget. It is impossible to ignore that the Albanese government inherited a $1 trillion debt left behind by those on the other side of this chamber. As a result, the government is forced to make sure that every measure aimed at improving gender equality can receive the appropriate funding needed for it to succeed. While this will take time, the government's investment of $5 billion in child care is an essential initial step. This measure will form a part of the October budget. It will do more to support female workforce participation than anything we have seen from those on the other side in the past decade.

Since its introduction, the Paid Parental Leave scheme has encouraged women to stay connected to their jobs, boosted workforce participation and allowed mothers to spend vital time with their newborn babies. It is crucial to women's economic security and the health and wellbeing of parents and their children. It continues to be an essential step in meeting an ageing Australian population's economic and social challenges. Treating parenting as an equal partnership helps gender equality and opens more choices for women to participate in the workforce. The Albanese Labor government is committed to strengthening the scheme to meet parenting demands and to improving flexibility to encourage families to share parenting responsibilities. It is aligned with the government's guiding principle to create a better Australia where no-one is held back or left behind.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A robust, universal paid parental leave scheme with a minimum of 26 weeks leave would transform so many lives in this country. This is something we Greens have been pushing for for a long time. At the May election this year, we brought a policy of 26 weeks guaranteed paid parental leave. The Greens plan would provide six months of paid parental leave, paid at the parent's existing wage, capped at $100,000 per annum, and include super contributions. This would include six weeks for each parent, with 14 weeks to be taken in whichever combination the family decides. The package would complement, not replace, existing employer schemes. When I doorknocked in Ryan and spoke to people about this plan, they absolutely loved the idea. Since May, we've seen a growing number of groups calling for boosting paid parental leave. The ACTU wants the Albanese government to increase paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks and then map out a path to lifting it to 52 weeks by 2030—a fantastic idea. The Business Council of Australia laid out 26 weeks of paid parental leave as a core policy suggestion, ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit. Chief Executive Women's submission to the jobs summit called for an expansion of the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme. Zali Steggall has now brought this motion to the House and I support it.

According to the economic experts, 26 weeks of shared paid parental leave will boost women's workforce participation. This is undoubtedly true and a very good thing. More importantly, I say, it will boost freedom for mums and for dads to spend these crucial, beautiful—but tiring—months with their newborns, while not worrying about whether they'll be able to pay the rent or the mortgage or whether they'll have a job to go back to once it's over. Coupled with another Greens policy—universal free child care—paid parental leave of 26 weeks will give families the freedom to decide the best arrangement for them. They can work out how much they work in paid employment, how much they spend doing the unpaid child-rearing work at home and, importantly, how they share those roles equitably between partners, and they can do that without fear of falling into poverty or falling behind in their careers.

In a wealthy country like Australia, we should be able to afford the freedom that comes with proper paid parental leave. In fact, we can. Boosting paid parental leave to 26 weeks and linking it to the parents' existing wage rather than the minimum wage would cost $6.4 billion over the next three years. That's a lot of money. That's $26.8 billion over 10 years. It does sound like a lot, except when you think that Labor's stage 3 tax cuts are going to cost the budget $244 billion over that time. If we scrapped those tax cuts, we'd fund a robust and fair paid parental leave plan, transform peoples' lives and still have $217 billion left to play with.

In fact, Australia currently has one of the worst parental leave schemes in the developed world. Shame! In Sweden, both parents are entitled to about nine months of parental leave; in Australia at the moment, 18 weeks for one parent only and on the minimum wage. Australia's current Paid Parental Leave scheme tends to lock mums into the role of primary carer and undermine their economic security, leading to a loss of work opportunities.

This motion and the Greens policy would begin to encourage both parents to share the parenting load and to normalise working arrangements that help families juggle work and caring responsibilities. It's high time we fixed paid parental leave in this country, and it's time that this government got on board with this plan. I support this bill.

Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Paid parental leave is an important and vital policy area for the new, Albanese Labor government and will remain a focus throughout our term of government. We understand the social and the economic benefits that paid parental leave provides to not only families in my electorate of Robertson but families right across the country. It was a Labor government in 2011 who introduced Australia's first, original government-funded Paid Parental Leave scheme, and it will be this Albanese Labor government that ensures that the scheme continues to put families at the centre of policymaking and that the scheme works for Australian families, moving into the future.

Coupled with this focus is the Albanese government's $5 billion investment in cheaper child care. Ensuring more families can access cheaper child care will mean parents, in particular women, can re-enter the workforce, increasing the nation's workforce participation and overall GDP. It is estimated that, if women's workforce participation matched that of men, we would increase GDP by 8.7 per cent, or $353 billion, by 2050.

An effective and strong paid parental leave scheme ensures Australian parents can nurture, care for and develop the incredibly important connections with their newborn babies in the early days of their lives. This is achieved by allowing mothers and fathers paid leave from their workplaces following the birth of a child. Up to 18 weeks leave is provided to the primary carer and up to two weeks for partners. During the 2021-22 period, around 121,000 people received the parental leave payment, and over 64,000 people received the dad and partner payment. These payments represent an investment in Australian families and an investment in the future of our workforce.

Paid parental leave also ensures that women are not disadvantaged in their employment if they choose to have a baby. The scheme helps maintain a committed and competitive workforce, supports the economic security of women, recognises women as essential and valued workers in the Australian skilled labour force, and promotes the health and welfare of mothers and newborn children. It ensures that both men and women can balance their work and parental responsibilities, and allows for couples to have children and not delay this decision due to economic reasons. And it allows our nation to address the declining national birth rate and safeguard our future economic base.

Disappointingly, those opposite in the former coalition government said that working mothers who claimed their full parental leave entitlements were double dipping and that this was some sort of rort. Those in the Albanese Labor government, including me, know that paid parental leave is not a rort and that Australian couples claiming their entitlements under the Paid Parental Leave scheme are not double dipping. The scheme was established to assist and help hardworking mothers and fathers with newborn children, and to ensure a fairer division of unpaid care and paid work, improving the family work-life balance.

I've spoken with parents in my electorate of Robertson who have told me that they would not have been able to have a child, secondary to financial barriers, if they had not been able to access the government's paid parental leave entitlements. As with any policy, any changes need to be considered within the context of the budget. In reality, we inherited a trillion dollars of Liberal Party debt from the former government, yet we will ensure paid parental leave continues to support families across Australia and complements the parental leave schemes many employers also provide.

The Albanese Labor government and I are committed to ensuring the nation's Paid Parental Leave scheme works for all Australians. I encourage those in opposition to see the Paid Parental Leave scheme as an investment in our nation and to work with the government in this policy area.

Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for her motion to acknowledge and address the inadequacies in Australia's paid parental leave and early childhood education systems, and I'm grateful to be able to speak on behalf of the people of North Sydney. Initially introduced in 2011, in its broadest context the Australian Paid Parental Leave scheme is one of the least adequate in the developed world. The Paid Parental Leave Bill 2010 offers families up to just 20 weeks of paid leave at a minimum wage. Of those 20 weeks, 18 are allocated to the primary carer, whilst the remaining two weeks are offered as dad and partner pay. Reflecting on that for just a moment: the mere fact that this pay is referred to as 'dad' or 'partner' pay immediately relegates the father in a parenting situation to the lesser of the two carers. This is unacceptable.

Comparing this scheme to those of our OECD peers, it's clear Australian families are missing out and our society is lagging as a consequence. On average, families in the OECD are typically entitled to over 50 weeks of paid leave. That's 2½ times more than we offer here in Australia. In Finland, new parents each have access to seven months paid leave. Policies such as these have been linked with better development outcomes for children and support a more balanced division of labour between two-parent families.

The reality is parental leave policy settings have a significant and wide-ranging impact on families, children, women, the economy and, ultimately, society as a whole. Significantly, they also reduce the employability gap between men and women in the workforce. If an employer is looking at either a male or a female candidate with the same expectation that they will, or could, take a significant amount of paid parental leave, the idea of employing one over the other to avoid this time out is ultimately removed. By encouraging both parents to share the responsibility of caring for young children, we can fundamentally shift a cultural paradigm which currently frequently forces women into the primary caring role, regardless of what a family may desire.

To be clear, I'm not saying that to be a primary carer is not the noblest of paths. Being a mother to my three children is undoubtedly the most incredible, rewarding and fundamental experience of my life. What I am saying is that paid parental leave offered here in Australia must allow families the maximum support and the ultimate choice of who the primary carer is and when. As the Grattan Institute noted in a report last year, greater sharing of child care is one of best ways to improve women's economic security.

Along with paid parental leave improvements, we need to ensure that families have access to quality and affordable care to allow those that either wish, or need, to return to work to do so. The most recent census data tells me there are 110,000 families living in my electorate of North Sydney and the electorate immediately to my north. There are almost 9,000 young children under the age of five and a further 9½ thousand children aged between five and 10 who need supervision when not at school. For this population there are only 140 childcare, day care and after-school care facilities. That's at least 65 children per centre. From my conversations with childcare operators, workers and parents, it's clear that more federal government leadership, coordination and support is needed.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12 : 44 to 12 : 58

From my conversations with childcare operators across North Sydney and with workers and parents, it's clear that more federal government leadership, coordination and support is needed. Childcare centres are struggling with skills shortages, while existing workers are overwhelmed and underpaid. Meanwhile, families cannot find spaces and affordability is a massive issue, with some facing fees of up to $200 a day. As one North Sydney parent put it to me: 'I've worked extremely hard to work in a management position in the tech industry. My inability to get back to work due to my inability to gain child care is detrimental to myself and also to the perception of women and mothers in the workforce, something that needs to change.'

Despite very positive conversations in this chamber today, the reality is that our current government has no plans to address the inadequacy of our paid parental leave program. In fact, we heard earlier this morning from the member for Bendigo that one of the reasons that can't be addressed is that it would take at least 50 weeks to bring about significant changes. It takes 40 weeks to make a new human being and just $600 million to enable us to meet the desires of our community to have 26 weeks paid parental leave. I not only support this motion; I urge the government to heed it and step into what is an unacceptable situation here in Australia.

Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For me the first year of my son's life was filled with awe and joy as well as sleep deprivation and anxiety, all in equal parts. I had prepared myself for the awe and joy, and many well-meaning parents had tried to prepare me for the sleep deprivation part of it. But what I hadn't realised was the constant hum of anxiety that would permeate that year. Was he feeding enough? Was he feeding too much? Why wasn't he crawling or talking or sleeping? It was a constant loop of questions and fears.

But in that first year there was one aspect of our ever-changing life that I didn't have to worry about, and that was our family's finances. A combination of paid parental leave schemes provided by my employer and the government meant that I could take a full year off to look after my son. It was a year that I loved and, as a new parent, it was a year that I needed. My son thrived. He grew from a wrinkly and crying newborn to a chubby and bubbling toddler. He continued not to be great on the sleep front, but that would come some years later. But it was a magical year.

It's been more than a decade since the Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced in Australia. At the time of its introduction, along with the United States, we were one of only two countries in the OECD that didn't have a statutory paid parental leave scheme. It's now become so entrenched and important a social policy that you sometimes forget that we didn't have it at all. Forty years ago, when my mother had me, her decision to return to work was governed by our family's financial situation and not my parents' own wishes. So I was placed in child care full time at just a couple of months old, as soon as the centre would take me. My mum doesn't have regrets about that decision, because it wasn't a choice she had the luxury of making. It was simply a reality of the times.

Years of research have shown that paid parental leave improves the wellbeing of families and children, encourages women to remain connected with work and sends a message that children and parenting are important in our society. I think it's time to look at the Paid Parental Leave scheme again and examine where further improvements can be made.

For me, a critical area where we could strengthen what we have at the moment is to encourage both parents to access paid parental leave. Currently only two weeks of leave are available for non-primary caregivers, who are often fathers. Compare that to the 18 weeks provided to the primary caregiver, usually the mother. The difference is stark, and it played out in my experience in that first year of my son's life. The community healthcare workers valiantly tried to rename our mothers group a 'parenting group' and encouraged dads to attend, but, in the end, every week it was a gathering of a dozen mums with their kids. At a time when we as a society need to move towards greater gender balance when it comes to caring responsibilities, our policy settings are still entrenching the role of women as primary carers, and I think that needs to change. Treating parenting as an equal partnership helps to improve gender equality and encourage women to participate in the workforce. We should be offering families more choice and flexibility.

When the Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced more than a decade ago, it was a game changer for many parents, including me. I want to thank two women who fought tirelessly to get the Paid Parental Leave scheme implemented: Professor Marian Baird from the University of Sydney Business School, who spent decades researching and advocating for paid parental leave; and Jenny Macklin, the minister responsible for bringing this policy idea to fruition. I thank them both.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order for the day for the next sitting.