Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

No, I intentionally did not make the joke. It has had a very long period of deliberation. It is a very important step forward to be doing it now and to be making our workplace here in Canberra—and hopefully our workplaces back in our electorate offices as well—more family-friendly, and also more breastfeeding-friendly, with the provision of child care.

Of course, the government supports the choice of many women with young children to return to the workforce, and construction of the childcare centre will provide an immediate benefit to those parents who want to return to work while their children are very young. It will provide a good model for other workplaces. It will make it easier for people to continue to breastfeed. It will make our relationships with our children much easier when we work such long and difficult hours.

I think there is one potential problem. It will be that those of us who are missing our own children at home will perhaps have to be banned from the childcare centre or we will be giving cuddles to strange children. That is the only potential drawback I can see. I think having children in Parliament House will be a very humanising thing for all of us. I think it will encourage us all to behave better and to remember that even our opponents and the journalists in the gallery—each and every one of us—have another side and other responsibilities. It will improve the way we treat each other and the feel of the parliament to have more children around.

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