Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. What is the Albanese Labor government's budget doing to support modern families? How will the paid parental leave policy benefit Australian families after nearly a decade of policy stagnation?

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Parramatta for that question. I am very pleased to inform the member for Parramatta that the Albanese Labor government is delivering the biggest expansion to paid parental leave since Labor introduced it in 2011.

Isn't this a stark contrast to what those opposite did with their time in government. They had no appetite to modernise the scheme to reflect how families were changing and what support they needed when bringing a new baby into the world. Instead, paid parental leave sat untouched and neglected by this coalition government. Of course, I need to be fair to those opposite because there was one big reform that they brought into the parliament—not once but twice. It was called the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill. That sounds very good. That sounds like a good reform. Of course, the objective of that bill was to deny mothers being able to take their government paid parental leave and their employer paid parental leave. Of course, we all remember how those mothers were characterised by those opposite. On Mother's Day, no less, it was announced by those opposite that these mothers were double dippers, rorters and fraudsters. This was an appalling way to characterise the women of Australia, who were just trying to cobble together leave so that they could maximise time with their newborn babies.

It is quite interesting—I was looking at the Hansardyou would think that those opposite would have got the message when they couldn't get support from this parliament to pass it. There was an election and then they brought it back in. They brought it back to the parliament. But I am very pleased that the parliament saw good sense and rejected that change. In stark contrast, the Albanese Labor government is extending paid parental leave by an extra six weeks. We're making it more flexible, so parents can use the time for shared care, enabling parents to best work out how to sort their arrangements. We're improving the income test to have both an individual or a couple income test. Importantly, single mothers will be able to take the full amount of time.

This is what real reform looks like. 180,000 new parents will benefit each year from our reforms, and we are doing it in a responsible way. This reform is long overdue. This reform is so important to Australian families. Families have been calling for it, and far from calling those mothers and dads double dippers, fraudsters and rorters, we will support Australian families every day of the week.