Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would just like to make some final comments about this legislation. I reiterate that this is an important step in the long road towards delivering paid parental leave in this country. I am not sure that we have quite got it yet; in fact, I do not think that we do. We know that this legislation does not go far enough in terms of providing a proper scheme that is underpinned by a workplace entitlement. That has been quite clear from the evidence that has been given in relation to the bills from the various ministers who have commented here over the last two days—particularly the comments from Senator Evans in the final part of the previous committee stage, when he said that the government would refrain from supporting the Greens amendment to the Fair Work Act because amending the employment standards to ensure that the entitlements for payment would match the entitlements for leave did not suit their time frame. We have quite some way to go to ensure that we have a well-funded and supportive scheme that offers parents—particularly working mums—what they need.

Having said that, this is a really important step, one that has taken many years to take. I am very disappointed that the coalition, despite their policy for a six-month leave plan and despite their assurance that they firmly believe that superannuation should be included in any type of paid parental leave bill, were not willing to use this opportunity to work with all sides to ensure that we could get those things bedded down. At the very least, superannuation should have been included in this scheme. There is really no excuse except for the fact that the government did not want to have to pay that bit extra to ensure that we do something immediately to address the retirement pay gap between men and women. This would have been the perfect place to start to address that issue, and neither the government nor the coalition was willing to do that.

It is very clear that, as these bills pass, it is a historic day. It is one step towards what will hopefully be a much stronger scheme in the future—although we still have to see the commitment from both sides to an extended scheme. The government are to this day still yet to commit to a minimum of six months and still yet to commit to superannuation being included. I hope that in 30 years time when my daughter is looking to have her own children she is not faced with this scheme. I hope it does not take us another 30 years to get the scheme that we should be delivering today. I hope that this is one step in a process that is not going to take another 30 years. I hope that we move on much faster. I look forward to the review in two years time. Hopefully, I will still be here to make sure that we strengthen the legislation as much as we can.