Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How does the Albanese Labor government's investment in paid parental leave help families balance work and care and provide cost-of-living assistance?

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

I'd like to thank the member for Bennelong for his question, and I congratulate the member for Bennelong for being a strong voice for families and communities across his electorate.

The Albanese government knows that improving paid parental leave is an incredibly important reform. It's important for families, it's important for women and it will deliver crucial benefits for our economy. That's why paid parental leave reform was front and centre of our first budget. Families are front and centre of this budget and of this government's agenda. We want to help ease the burden of juggling care and work, and we're moving ahead on our commitment to reform paid parental leave.

This week I'll be introducing legislation into the parliament that will implement the first tranche of paid parental leave changes that we announced in the budget. Crucially, when passed, from 1 July 2023 it will give more families access to government payments, provide parents more flexibility on how they take leave and encourage them to share care to support gender equality. Then, from July 2024, we will progressively increase the scheme to six weeks, which will finish in 2026. That will give families a full six months. This is the largest expansion since Labor established the scheme in 2011.

Since our budget announcement I've had the privilege of talking to many families about what these changes mean. Kiri is a working mum with two young kids, who said that the promotion of shared care in the government's paid parental leave measures would have been an enormous benefit when she and her partner were having children. She said: 'I wish that this was in when I had my two kids. I'm the main breadwinner in our family, and my husband didn't have any paid parental leave through his job, so, when we had our children, he only took a few days off.'

Daniel and Amy in Mackay called the government's announcement 'fantastic', saying additional time to help couples and single parents is very welcome. They agree that the key feature to help families is the flexibility and the ability to share entitlements, as opposed to when they first welcomed their children.

The government have been very clear that our paid parental leave scheme is designed to complement employer paid workplace leave schemes and will not replace them. We will never accuse parents of being double-dippers if they take both entitlements. I am proud to be part of a government that have spent every day of their first six months in government delivering for families—delivering significant reforms and meaningful policies to improve the lives of families and communities right around Australia.