David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this bill, the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025. I want to start by recognising Baby Priya's parents, who experienced the devastating death of their six-week-old daughter last June. I'm sorry for your loss and I'm sure that no words can describe the heartbreak of losing a child. We know the story now, thanks to their advocacy. Rather than being met with care, time and support to grieve, Priya's mum was asked, just 10 days after her daughter passed away, to start negotiating her return to work with her employer. Her parental leave was cancelled and replaced by one month of personal leave.

From this experience, they have advocated selflessly to ensure other bereaved parents never have to go through the same uncertainties as they did while they were grieving. This bill ensures that paid parental leave cannot be cancelled in circumstances where a baby is stillborn or dies, and it's because of their advocacy that the right for parents to grieve in their own time—supported by paid parental leave entitlements and a return to the workforce when they're ready—will now be protected.

This is a very good bill. Again, I want to thank and recognise Priya's parents for their work in pushing for it, and I want to commend Minister Rishworth and the government for bringing this bill to the parliament. I also want to thank those among my colleagues who have debated this bill with empathy and respect. Embedding compassion into our workplaces is something we should be striving for in Australia.

I believe this bill represents the type of common grace that people want to see extended to their fellow Australians. No parent mourning their child and the future they had imagined for their family should be forced to return to work sooner than expected or face financial pressures to do so. Someone's parenting journey does not end because their baby was stillborn or died early. This bill recognises that truth and moves to bring protections for employer funded leave entitlements in line with those for the government paid entitlements. It is an important step to ensuring compassion and fairness for all parents, no matter where they work.

On a final point, it's worth mentioning that six babies are stillborn every day in Australia. It's something that we need to talk about more. We need to recognise that there are many, many parents living in our community who are missing their baby every day. Hopefully, this bill will make it a little bit easier for parents going forward. But there is still more to do in this space. I commend this bill to the Senate.