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

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitment to strengthen paid parental leave, and what are the risks?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks so much to the member for Holt. She is a big supporter of paid parental leave for all those young families in her electorate that rely on it and benefit from it. As I've said before, it is really surprising that Australia was one of the very few developed countries in the world not to have a paid parental leave scheme before the Rudd and Gillard governments. We are so proud of the fact that it was Labor that introduced paid parental leave and that it is Labor that continues to expand paid parental leave.

We are providing more time, more money, more flexibility and more people with this benefit. More time—this year we will get to six months of paid parental leave. More money—each week recipients will get a higher payment, $200 a week more, and superannuation for the first time on paid parental leave because of decisions this government has made. More flexibility—more time for mums and dads to take off together, and, of course, more people are eligible. Since we came to government in 2022, someone receiving paid parental leave is $12,000 better off. We've almost doubled paid parental leave.

Of course, we are very clear that we are for more and better paid parental leave. Those on the other side are, frankly, all over the place on this. We had the former treasurer who called mothers double dippers. We had the former Prime Minister who called them rorters. We've got the current shadow treasurer who says, about their own scheme, 'It's a very bad scheme. It's not my choice that women have children.' Now we've got the Leader of the National Party who said in response to Baby Priya's bill that women were going to deliberately get pregnant and have late term abortions to get paid parental leave. We've got the Leader of the Opposition who went to the election saying that he wanted to see higher taxes and lower wages for working mums. We've got a Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the other place—I mean, I think that's her title; it's not very clear—who wanted to cut off access to working from home for working mums. Essentially, they are all over the place on supports for working families.

What we know for certain on this side is that we are for paid parental leave. We are for cheaper child care. We are for higher wages and lower taxes for working mums. We are for workplace flexibility, including working from home, and we are for supporting families to look after their kids with that security.