Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier in the week, the Labor government rammed through the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025. The stated purpose of that bill was to ensure that employer funded paid parental leave isn't cancelled because a child is stillborn or dies—I say that again 'or dies'.

I've asked about the status of late-term abortion procedures as they relate to the stillborn baby payment, which is a different issue, during Senate estimates. It's understood that this payment, in some circumstances, is paid in the case of late-term abortions. To clarify that issue as it related to the bill, I moved an amendment that, if passed, would have stopped the payment being made in those circumstances.

Last week, in the Federation Chamber, MPs Andrew Hastie, Barnaby Joyce, Henry Pike and Tony Pasin rightly raised the issue of Priya's bill being used following a late-term abortion. They did so respectfully. They did so offering no judgement. They didn't even seek to amend the bill. This morning on ABC Radio, opposition leader Sussan Ley said:

… any commentary about this bill applying in other contexts is insensitive.

I have to respond to that. How can it be insensitive to raise the issue of a clear loophole in a federally mandated scheme in the parliament, which votes on the scheme. That is their right, that is my right, and, indeed, that is the very purpose of debate in this parliament.