Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak to the Paid Parental Leave (Reduction of Compliance Burden for Employers) Amendment Bill 2010. This is a bill where the opposition is just playing politics with a really vital piece of social reform. One of the best pieces of legislation to pass through this House was the bill for paid parental leave. The government’s legislation that was passed through the House establishing paid parental leave was the greatest reform that has taken place in this country for women in the time that I have been in parliament. It is going to benefit so many women. Women are already registering to obtain the benefit when they have their babies in January, and I believe over 500 businesses have already registered.

What this bill before us today does is create uncertainty and show a blatant disregard for women. It is playing politics—blatant political game playing—and I am pretty disgusted with the member who has raised this here today. This is six weeks out from the commencement of the scheme, and the opposition are showing once again that they are wreckers. The member opposite has brought to this parliament a piece of legislation that is delaying an act that is already in place. The legislation is creating uncertainty—something that women having babies do not need—and is creating confusion in the community which will lead to women not registering for the Paid Parental Leave scheme passed by the government. I note that the date for the member for Dunkley’s legislation to take effect is 1 July, and I note that he is really creating this uncertainty in the community.

Businesses are looking to the benefits of the government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme, with 550 employers already signed up to provide government funded parental leave scheme pay. That will make it much more efficient. Around two-thirds of these employers are choosing to start playing their part before the ongoing payment arrangements for long-term employees start. I have been contacted in my office by a number of my constituents—women having babies—and they have told me just what the legislation that has been passed through the House means to them.

I would like to bring to the attention of the House the fact that the opposition did not support the legislation. They were against it from the start. The Leader of the Opposition had a thought bubble that led to him introducing his amendment to the legislation; it was going to be a tax on everything, which every Australian had to pay for his proposal for a paid parental leave scheme—a scheme that was flawed right from the onset and one that he could not fully explain and on which he could not bring the community on board with him.

It is important for women to maintain a connection to the workplace when they have a baby. The Paid Parental Leave scheme that is in place will allow this to happen. Women do not need uncertainty. They do not need an opposition that is playing politics to erode a scheme that is in place and that will benefit most women having children in Australia. It is about security and about keeping a skilled workforce in place, and I think that the member who has brought this to the House should have thought this through a little better before he introduced his legislation.

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