Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025, a bill that I believe is grounded in compassion and common sense. This is a good bill, but I believe it does not go far enough. It is a compassionate and practical reform that corrects a cruel inconsistency in our laws. It ensures that when a baby is stillborn or dies soon after birth an employer cannot unilaterally cancel paid parental leave that has already been approved. It brings basic decency into line with existing protections for unpaid parental leave. But this bill is only a very small step in addressing a far bigger problem. Australia's workplace laws still fail to properly recognise and support the reproductive health needs of women. As the Australian Council of Trade Unions has pointed out, reproductive health is not a niche concern; it's a universal one. ACTU president Michele O'Neil has said:

Reproductive health can impact all workers and will affect most workers at some stage in their life.

Too many workers have been penalised or forced to bow out of employment because of reproductive health issues.

We need universal paid reproductive leave so that women as well as men can balance work and care and stay in their jobs. That is the larger conversation we must have. This bill is a compassionate fix, but it must be the beginning and not the end of a broader effort to recognise reproductive health as a legitimate part of workplace life.

The origins of this legislation are heartbreaking, and I commend all my fellow senators for making contributions. It's named after a little girl, Baby Priya, who lived for just 42 days. I extend my deepest condolences and sympathies to her family and her parents. Priya's parents loved her deeply, and when she passed away her mother, who was prepared for months of parental leave, was told she was no longer eligible to take it. Her employer cancelled the leave on the basis that her baby had died. Her husband could take his leave, but she could not. This bill ensures that no parent will ever face that injustice again. It amends the Fair Work Act to prevent employers from refusing or cancelling employer-funded paid parent leave in cases of stillbirth or early infant death. It closes a gap in the law that left parents vulnerable to both grief and financial harm.

In the past week, like many senators in this place, I've received correspondence misrepresenting this bill. Some claim it incentivises late term abortions or that women will kill their babies for profit from taxpayer money. These claims are false. This bill deals only with employer-funded paid parental leave, leave that comes from an employment contract, a workplace policy or an enterprise agreement. It does not affect the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, which governs government funded payments. It does not involve taxpayer money. It simply provides that where paid parental leave already exists under a workplace agreement, an employer cannot revoke it simply because of a tragedy.

The Fair Work Act already defines a stillborn child as one who weighs at least 400 grams or has reached 20 weeks gestation and shows no sign of life after birth or after delivery. That definition does not include pregnancies that have been lawfully terminated, and this bill does not alter that definition in any way. A woman who undergoes a termination is not and will not become eligible for paid parental leave or stillborn payments under this legislation as I understand it. For some people in this chamber to suggest otherwise is quite misleading and disingenuous to the Australian public. The claim that anyone could profit from ending pregnancy is very, very harmful. It dismisses the suffering of women who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death, and it fuels this dangerous narrative that distorts compassion into controversy. Each of the 76 senators in this place have either personally experienced or know of someone experiencing the realities of pregnancy, and let me tell you that it's not a simple walk in the park. It is a physical and emotional marathon requiring strong mental fortitude and a safe support network. For many families, it begins with years of fertility treatment, IVF cycles, hormone therapy and heartbreak. For others, it brings complex conditions, such as endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome, and high-risk complications.

When a pregnancy ends in stillbirth, the loss is devastating. No-one chooses the pain; no-one experiences it to gain access to leave or payment. The grief of losing a child cannot be offset by a policy or a pay slip. I speak as a woman who's seen, through family, friends and countless constituents reaching out to talk about it, the profound physical and emotional labour of bringing life into this world and the devastation of losing it. It is highly insulting and very offensive to suggest that women would endure the emotional and physical suffering for financial gain.

This bill recognises that grief should not result in financial insecurity. It ensures that the leave a parent has already earned is protected, and it prevents the cancellation of that leave because of a stillbirth or an early infant death. Fairness and productivity go hand in hand. We've heard it multiple times: workplaces that treat people with decency retain skilled staff, improve morale and continue building that trust. Who would have thought that we'd be here debating and questioning the merits of compassion in building a stronger workforce?

As I alluded to earlier, this debate raises that broader issue of how our workplaces support reproductive health and women's continued participation in the workforce. Across the country, unions are campaigning for 10 days of paid reproductive health leave to cover IVF treatments, menopause, endometriosis, miscarriage and other reproductive needs. Women currently retire, on average, seven years earlier than men do, often not by choice but because workplaces fail to accommodate for their health needs. The General Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, Jacqueline King, put it plainly: 'For too long, generations of working women have had to show up to work in pain or juggle demanding treatments because of stigma and inadequate leave.' She said workplaces must recognise that 'people have families' and that 'they also have reproductive health'. This bill belongs in that same continuum of reform. It recognises that family, fertility and loss are not private inconveniences that need to be hidden from public discourse and policy but part of the human experience of working life.

As mentioned earlier by Senator Gallagher, there has been far too much moral panic about this legislation, obviously turning the compassion that we're seeking into a culture war headline. No, this bill does not fund abortions. No, it does not expand eligibility for government payments. No, it does not invite abuse. It simply closes a loophole that allowed employers to cancel paid parental leave after a stillbirth or an early infant death. We may hold personal beliefs about the ethics of pregnancy and birth, but this parliament must legislate on facts, not fear and misconceptions that are running rampant like wildfire. Many employers already act with compassion when tragedy strikes—they keep jobs open, they provide time to grieve and they check in long after the flowers have faded. This bill sets that compassion as a national standard for all. To those who still worry that such kindness might be exploited, I would say that the greater exploitation is to punish people for losing a child.

Colleagues, we cannot undo the pain that Baby Priya's parents have experienced, but we can ensure that no-one else endures the same bureaucratic cruelty. We can ensure that no mother is ever told: 'Because your baby didn't live, your leave doesn't count.' This bill says to every parent who has faced the unimaginable: 'Your grief will not be compounded by paperwork. Your dignity will not depend on your employer's discretion. The law will treat your loss with the respect it deserves.'

If we are serious about equality and the retention of women in the workforce, we must create workplaces that recognise life in all its forms, even in its loss. I commend the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025 to the Senate.