Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Being a parent is arguably the most amazing experience in life. Good parents want the best for their children. The work-life balance is often difficult, and parents want the best for their family and especially their children. There are many mothers who do not want to return to work, but financial constraints mean they must. My government wants to ensure the best support possible for young families.

The Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Flexibility Measures) Bill 2020 introduces changes to the Paid Parental Leave scheme which will provide choice and flexibility to working mothers and families to access their entitlements. The Paid Parental Leave scheme introduced in 2011 is a world-leading initiative which provides an important safety net for new mothers, adoptive parents and other eligible guardians, supporting them to take time off work to spend time with their newborn or newly adopt children.

There are over 300,000 babies born in Australia every year. In 2019, close to 180,000 people claimed parental leave payments. That means the scheme supported over half of all new primary caregivers last year. The Paid Parental Leave scheme provides eligible working parents with 18 weeks of payments at a rate based on the national minimum wage, which is currently $740.60 per week. That's a total of just over $13,000 over 18 weeks. Through the measures introduced by this bill, we will continue to support the objectives of the Paid Parental Leave scheme while offering families flexibility around when they can access their payment in order to support them balance the needs of their young family and their work.

As it currently stands, paid parental leave must be taken in a continuous block. If a parent returns to work before they have received their full entitlement of 18 weeks of paid parental leave, they lose eligibility for the remainder of the payment. Under the amendments made by this bill, parents will instead be able to claim two types of parental leave pay. An initial 12-week period is available, which parents can use at any time within the first 12 months after the birth or adoption of a child. This initial period will be subject to the same conditions as currently apply to the existing 18-week period. Parents will then be able to use the remaining six weeks of their entitlement at any time within two years of the birth or adoption of their child—in blocks as small as one day at a time. These changes are about giving parents choice when it comes to balancing their work and family commitments, and reflect the range of working demands and personal preferences parents have in relation to their work and career aspirations. Many parents will be able to use their flexible entitlement to support a gradual return to work. For example, after their initial 12-week period, a parent could negotiate with their employer to work a four-day week and receive one day of parental leave pay for the fifth day of the week for up to 30 weeks. These changes will also support parents who are small business owners or otherwise self-employed. For these individuals, 18 weeks is a significant amount of time to be away from their work. After taking their initial 12 weeks of parental leave pay, a parent will then be able to tailor their leave entitlements to suit their personal and business needs.

These amendments will support many thousands of parents across the country and many in my electorate of Mallee. Data from 2018 indicates that over 1,800 babies were born in my electorate and there were over 800 parental leave pay recipients. Since the inception of the program in 2011, well over 5,000 people in my electorate have accessed these payments. Once these amendments come into effect, parents in my electorate will begin to benefit in many ways. My experience in the field of social work has given me valuable insights into the challenges faced by young mothers. Over the years, I have worked with many vulnerable and disadvantaged young women who carry with them the burden of being single parents. Due to their circumstances, many of these young mothers have limited capacity to juggle employment and parenthood. Gaining work, and returning to work, is important for these mothers as doing so helps them put food on the table and pay their bills.

The amended Paid Parental Leave bill will give single young mothers greater capacity to work. I've heard many stories about how these changes will benefit mothers. Recently I had the chance to speak with Bec Arnold, from Mildura, the mother of two young children, who was able to access paid parental leave after the birth of her children. She spoke of the uncertainties experienced by new mothers and how there is often a lingering fear of the unknown when it comes to raising a child. She was confident these changes will give mothers like her security and peace of mind. Mothers who have flexible parental leave pay to fall back on will be more able to deal with unexpected events such as a child's illness.

Another mother from my electorate spoke to me about her experience of giving birth to a baby prematurely. She is part of a support group of mothers who have given birth to premmies who have welcomed these changes as vitally important for parents like them. Many parents of babies born prematurely have their leave entitlements exhausted while the child is in hospital, often in intensive care, potentially forcing them back to work or causing them to give up their employment altogether to care for their child. This new amendment will allow parents faced with difficult circumstances to have greater flexibility to care for their child after leaving hospital.

Babies born prematurely often have complicated health outcomes requiring ongoing treatment. Another mother in a premmie support group shared her personal story of her child who developed cerebral palsy. Due to the child's condition, regular treatment was required from a therapist. Fortunately these parents were able to make arrangements through the NDIS and to provide the necessary care for their child. However, when the mother had to return to full-time work the therapist had to make visits to the child's day care centre, which meant additional transport costs to the parents. The proposed flexible leave amendment would have given the parents the option of having the day off work to transport their child themselves to weekly therapy appointments rather than eating into their NDIS funding.

This bill will support the government's work regarding the Women's Economic Security Package, as announced in the 2018-19 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. This package aims to improve women's workforce participation, economic independence and earning potential. This package identified an increase in the flexibility of parental leave pay as a key means by which women's participation in the workforce could be improved. While the workforce participation rate of women with children is increasing, the participation rate for mothers is still below that of fathers and is strongly related to the age of their youngest child. This is why it is so important to get the settings right for paid parental leave if we are to close the gap between men and women's workforce participation.

At the 2014 G20 meeting in Brisbane, the government committed to closing this gap by 25 per cent by 2025. By 2018, when the Women's Economic Security Statement was released, this gap was already at 9.5 percentage points, meaning we're well on the way to achieving a 25 per cent reduction in the gap. I have no doubt that the flexibility measures introduced by this bill will help close the gap between men's and women's workforce participation even further and help us meet our 2025 target.

As a mother, grandmother, social worker and a member of this House representing the people of Mallee, I am proud to support this bill. All birth and adoption experiences are unique, and, as such, we need to cater for all circumstances, especially when things don't go according to plan. These amendments will help us to do precisely that.

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