Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for her question and for her commitment to paid parental leave in Australia. On 1 January this year, paid parental leave was introduced into Australia for the first time. For the first time after decades of waiting, Australia finally caught up with the rest of the developed world and this Labor government delivered paid parental leave. Paid parental leave is now giving Australia’s babies the best start that they need in life, giving their parents the sort of financial security that they deserve and making sure that parents can stay at home with their newborn babies in those very important early months of life. Over 22,000 expectant and new parents have already put in their application forms and we now have 2,200 parents—

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