07 December 2023

Family is the foundation of a prosperous and optimistic nation, and the most critical time for a family is when children are born. The Albanese government recognises this, and that's why I'm proud to support this bill, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill 2023. This bill will empower families to do well, it will invest in women's economic equality, it will give fathers the capacity to be more involved in their children's lives at a critical time, it will have significant benefits for the wellbeing of families, and it will help drive Australia's economy. The bottom line is that this bill will enable parents to have more time with their newborns—six months in total. Whether you're a single parent, a young couple with twins or an adoptive parent, this bill creates an even stronger foundation for families to do well. It will ease cost-of-living pressures and create greater capacity for parents to share parenting, build careers and earn a wage.

I recently met up with parents and some of my youngest constituents in Torquay at a multiple birth playgroup. They said expanding paid parental leave to 26 weeks would make a real difference, advance gender equality and reduce the gender pay gap. Playgroup secretary Jemma Smith, the mother of one-year-old twins, said the changes to paid parental leave would have made a huge difference to her life with her boys, Angus and Charlie, when they were born. Longer parental leave would've allowed Jemma and her husband, Lachie, more precious time to bond with their children. She said: 'When you are the parent of multiples, you can spend a lot of your paid leave in hospital, so this would have been fantastic.' She also welcomed the extra flexibility that parents could exercise when taking leave to better accommodate the many demands facing working parents. Jemma said: 'It's so much harder to go back to work when you have twins. This would have been so helpful. Our family would have had a steadier income sooner.'

So, for young families like Jemma's and Lachie's, and for all of those who will soon have children, we are acting—acting to better support families. Many of these families will raise their children in my electorate of Corangamite, which is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, with a significant cohort of young families. In the latest census, the largest change in my area was in the 30 to 39 age group, with a 30 per cent population increase. The urban growth area of Armstrong Creek, where my electoral office is located, is now the youngest locality in the region, with a median age of 30 years. There are similar growth areas, with many young families, in Bannockburn, Ocean Grove and Torquay. So, at a local level, this bill matters. It will directly benefit young families in my growing communities, and I'm proud to have advocated strongly for this much-needed legislation.

By giving more families access to government parental leave payments and providing greater flexibility in how they take leave, we're encouraging parents to share the important role of caring for children. In the process, we're advancing gender equality. These reforms mean that more women can work if they want to, to earn more and grow their super. Superannuation is particularly important for women. We know that women over 55 are the group most vulnerable to homelessness, and this is unacceptable. The reforms have been driven by our Labor caucus, which, for the first time ever, proudly has a majority of women. Our Labor government is absolutely committed to advancing equity and opportunity for women.

And we recognise that superannuation is particularly important for women. We know that women over 55 are the group most vulnerable to homelessness, and this is unacceptable. The reforms have been driven by our Labor caucus, which, for the first time ever, proudly, has a majority of women. Our Labor government is absolutely committed to advancing equity and opportunity for women. Let us remember that, until 1972, around a decade before I entered the workforce, no major party had a women's policy, let alone a robust paid parental scheme. It was only under Labor, led by former prime minister Gough Whitlam, and his women's adviser, Elizabeth Reid, that a revolution for women's rights began.

Since then, our society has made significant strides in gender equality, but women still do the lion's share of nurturing and caring for children across our nation. For example, data shows that, only two years ago, women accounted for nearly 90 per cent of primary parental leave, yet 91 per cent of organisations do not discriminate between men and women taking parental leave. Over the past 40 years, there have been significant changes in the composition of Australia's active workforce. There have been large increases in the employment participation of women, who comprised 48 per cent of the total employed in 2022, compared to 36 per cent in 1979. Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals that the most common reason women were unavailable to start a job or work more hours was caring for children. While we celebrate the incredible nurturing spirit of women, we must work together to create equitable opportunities for everyone: mums, dads and all parents.

Making life easier and more productive for Australian parents is critical reform. This is why paid parental leave reform was a centrepiece of our first budget, where we invested half a billion dollars to expand the scheme to six months by 2026. This is the largest investment in paid parental leave since Labor established it in 2011, benefiting over 180,000 families each year. Many in my community would remember that, in the past, dads were only able to take government paid leave at roughly half the rate of mums. The scheme was built on the gendered assumptions of primary and secondary carers, which limits parents' ability to share care. Our reforms have addressed that anomaly, and this bill we speak on today further addresses these issues by implementing the second tranche of our government's paid parental leave reform, announced in the 2022-23 October budget. It follows the first tranche we legislated at the start of the year to modernise the scheme to reflect how Australian families and their needs have changed over the past decade. These changes, which commenced on 1 July, have given more families access to payment, given parents more flexibility in how they take their leave and encouraged parents to share pay. This is a strong foundation and will help parents across our nation.

This bill does many things. It builds on our commitment to support young families who are struggling to make ends meet. We know that raising a family can be expensive. It often means young people are unable to buy a house when they raise children. That's why, alongside our expansion of paid parental leave, we are working with states and territories to deliver the Help to Buy scheme, supporting up to 40,000 families in purchasing a home of their own. This will bring homeownership back into reach for thousands of families who have been locked out of the housing market. The Albanese government has already helped more than 50,000 Australians into homeownership through the Home Guarantee Scheme, including more than 6,000 through the new Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee.

It is important to raise a couple of the things that are taking place in this bill. The bill will provide flexibility by increasing the number of weeks where parents can take paid parental leave at the same time. All in all, our reforms strike an important balance in increasing support for mums and encouraging dads as well. Many in my community will remember that men really do not get the same amount of time with children, and we want to see that both parents have an opportunity to play an active role at a critical time when children are so young. It makes such a difference to parents. So we are looking forward to being able to offer all families this opportunity. It means that more families will have roofs over their heads for their children, and our expansion of paid parental leave will help do this as well.

In closing, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill 2023 reaffirms Labor's commitment to paid parental leave. It is good for parents, it is good for kids and it is good for the wellbeing of families. It is good for employers and, importantly, it is good for our economy. I commend the bill to the House.